Unknown Artist
Rahula was the Buddha’s son and became one of his 16 original disciples, arhats. Rahula has a number of different ways in which he is depicted. The most common depiction in Tibetan art is for him to be holding up a jeweled crown with both hands. Chinese depictions often have him holding a staff in one hand and a tiger or lion seated at his feet. The iconography of the arhats is not fixed in art or literature.
This painting is an example of the kind of Tibetan Buddhist art produced in the Manchu Qing imperial court under the Qianlong emperor (who reigned from 1736 to 1795). It combines Indian figural models with Chinese landscapes heavy with azurite and malachite. The Chinese blue-green landscape forms have become stylized by Tibetan conventions and populated by buddhas and other sacred figures that are portrayed in a Tibetan manner, such as the red Buddha of Infinite Life (Amitayus) floating at the top of the composition. We can also spot a pair of male and female supplicants with unusually modeled faces kneeling below.
Mesmerizing!
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