Painting Type: Red Ground
Red Ground MasterworksSubjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- Ground Colours Main Page
- Confusions: gold ground, gold fill
- Others...
Videos:
- Red Ground Paintings
- Four Ground Colours
Red ground is appropriate for all deities that are classified in Buddhist Tantra as Power Deities, along with peaceful deities, powerful teachers and religious leaders. Red ground compositions often include gold outlining, or gold fill for the figures. Red ground paintings began to appear as a popular art form in the 17th century. The popularity can be traced to Central Tibet and the art patronage of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama. Some scholars believe that red ground paintings in Tibet were influenced during the Yongle Period with the introduction of red book covers for decorating the Chinese Buddhist Tripitika, Kangyur and Tangyur.
Study Topics:
- Origin: Yongle Period Lacquer Book Covers
- Styles: Primarily New Menri of Lhasa
- Purpose: Decorative
- Subjects: Red Deities, Power, Peaceful, Teachers
Sometimes red ground and gold ground paintings can be very difficult to distinguish as later artists began to combine the two colours into single compositions. The ground of one painting might be red while all of the figures in the composition are gold filled. The artist might also employ the opposite technique. Even though the ground is red the majority of the composition and all of the figures can be gold filled.
Database Search: All Images
Jeff Watt 7-2008 [updated 6-2017]
(The images below are only a selection of examples from the links above).
