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| Buddha Paradise In many ways Tibetan paintings, such as this one of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, attempt to reveal and define the nature of Buddhahood. By showing him in his paradise the painter tried to relate the growth of a Buddha. The artist did this through the use of curious technical and aesthetic devices. The Buddha was supposed to be a being that existed in more conscious dimensions than ordinary everyday persons. How could the artist show such a multi-dimensional world on the two-dimensional surface of a canvas that existed in the world of three dimensions? He had to speak of a larger sphere with very limited means. He had no models to work from. The objects in the painting were abstractions given form to act as metaphors which might aid a viewer in an expansion of his consciousness of the everyday world. The work has no one fixed vanishing point. The artist meant for the viewer to use his two eyes as he does in reality, not one as in Western perspective. This allowed a great deal of shifting emphasis and perspectives in different parts of the painting. When two-eyed vision is painted it depicts a slightly distorted figure which is closer to what human eyes really see -- as has been discovered by twentieth-century painters. The beings in the lower portions of the painting are supposed to exist closer to the normal world and are depicted with a seemingly more realistic manner. But there is less spatial treatment around these figures. Working up through the picture, the balustrades' lines are completely inverted, growing larger instead of smaller as they move away from the viewer. This gives a strange orientation. Just past the barrier is a very active area of dancing flames, figures, musicians, and clouds that are like a boiling pot of water. Rising out of that are the Bodhisattvas, ethereal Buddhas and the Buddha Shakyamuni. They are not drawn with naturalism but, due to the simpler style that is distinctive in this portion of the painting, they seem wrapped in greater thickness of dimensions. There seems to be more air around the central figure due to its greater clarity. There the artist shows a serenity in the midst of the surrounding ferocious action. |
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