“Dream of the Medicine Buddha, by a European medieval painter” Tokyo, 2023 commission work
Size: A4
Vellum
24kt gold
Gouache painting
Late-Gothic style
For this work, I tried to imagine a European medieval Illumination painter coming to Asia and seeing a Buddha representation for the first time. My imagination went on… He would probably look for similarities of expressions between the figure of Christ and Buddha and he will try to use his knowledges and techniques to create his artwork.
He would probably notice the similarities in the Aureola behind the statue and, like in Christian representations of Jesus Christ, he will try to put the four evangelists symbols at each corner… (We decided with the client to keep the composition but we changed the Christian evangelists to buddhist angels). This imaginary medieval painter would draw plants in the border, like he always did, and would decorate it with some natural creatures like insects.
And he would probably have painted the Buddha with the same faith he had for Christ!
I tried to work with this character in mind.
