Patchwork Tales
- Shakyamuni Buddha avadana painting
- Mineral pigments on cotton
- India or Tibet, 19th century
- Collected by Walter Koelz, Indian Himalayas
- Dr. Alexander G. Ruthven Collection, UMMAA 47157
If you look closely at this Tibetan Buddhist avadana painting, you will see a patchwork. Avadana stories recount the previous lives of the Buddha and paintings of the 108 tales were often produced in sets. In this case, someone has used fragments from multiple paintings in the same set to form a seemingly complete canvas. Such a "repair" of a sanctified image would have been sacrilegious to a Tibetan Buddhist devotee and was likely done by the American collector or a colonial antique dealer.