Iron Staff Lama
| Iron Staff Lama | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Zhang Yan |
| Year | 1993 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 102 cm × 120 cm (40 in × 47 in) |
| Location | Vatican Museums, Vatican City |
Iron Staff Lama is a 1993 oil painting created by Zhang Yan in Tibet, China. It depicts a lama carrying an iron staff with him while inspecting and disciplining monks.[1] It has been owned by the Vatican Museums permanently in May 2017.[2][3]
Background
The lama with an iron staff, known as "dge-bskos" in Tibetan, are in charge of monitoring registers and disciplines at the monasteries of the Dratsang monks. They are officially referred to as the disciplinarian or the monastery monitor.
Historically, they often carried an iron staff with them when inspecting and disciplining the monks, which gained them the name of the “Iron Staff Lama”.
This is Zhang Yan's first oil painting. Because the cloth used in oil painting must be primed before drawing, and Tibet was lack of supplies at that time, the primer of this painting was specially formulated by him using local minerals at an altitude of 4000 meters in Tibet.[4]
Iron Staff Lama is collected by the Vatican Museums permanently in May 2017, which is the first living artist's work permanently preserved by the Vatican Museum.[2][3]
References
- ^ "赠画给教宗方济各的油画大师 张焰谈中西艺术的美丽邂逅". Storm. 2017-06-09.
- ^ a b "Cina-Musei Vaticani: collaborazione culturale". Museivaticani. 2017-05-31.
- ^ a b "Cina, donate al Papa due tele d'autore "a nome del popolo cinese"". lastampa. 2017-06-01. Archived from the original on 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
- ^ "史诗的开篇：中梵艺术交往的里程碑". Teresa Tseng天瓯智库. 2017-10-03.