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context: painting > early painting > buddhist painting
Haya Raigo
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Amidha coming to take a soul |
This is a thirteenth century version of a very popular theme at the time, that of Amidha descending to take to paradise the soul of the priest dying at bottom right. There are lots of instances of this subject, but I think this one has a few notable points. It's about the first time we see gold foil used in a Japanese painting - and there is lots more of it to come, rarely to as striking and appropriate effect as here. It's also the only Amidha-descent I've seen that fits the textual descriptions of this - they talk of his taking a soul "in the blink of an eye", but most paintings look stately if you can imagine any movement at all, but with the cloud effects here, there is a sense of pace.