Untitled

The work, titled Untitled, is a 14th‑century Buddhist portrait painted in distemper on cloth, a support typical of early Indian panel paintings. Its dimensions, recorded in the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue, measure 77.2 cm in height by 59.7 cm in width. The composition depicts a man alongside an elephant and a mythical creature, arranged in a flattened, symbolic space that reflects the stylized iconography of the period.

Executed by an anonymous hand, the painting employs a restrained palette of earth tones and linear outlines characteristic of distemper technique, with subtle surface wear that has not been documented. The work is classified as a portrait within the museum’s collection.

Created around 1350, this untitled portrait was executed by an anonymous artist using distemper on cloth. The work depicts a man alongside an elephant, a mythical creature, and Buddhist themes. Measuring 77.2 cm in height and 59.7 cm in width, the painting eventually entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is currently housed.

The specific commission circumstances and the detailed chain of ownership prior to its arrival at the Metropolitan Museum of Art remain unrecorded in the available sources.

The work is recognized in major museum collections as a key example of 14th‑century anonymous Buddhist painting. Its presence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, documented in the catalogue entry, has made it a reference point for scholars examining early portraiture that blends narrative iconography with devotional subjects. The depiction of a man with an elephant and mythical creatures illustrates the integration of Buddhist symbolism into secular portrait formats, influencing later studies of cross‑cultural artistic exchange.

Because the artist remains unidentified, the piece is frequently cited in discussions of anonymous workshops and the transmission of visual motifs across regions.

This untitled thangka, painted around 1350, depicts an unidentified abbot of the Kagyupa order, a significant branch of Tibetan Buddhism. Executed in distemper on cloth, the artwork measures approximately 30 by 23 inches. It was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1991 through the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Philanthropic Fund.

The painting showcases a distinctive synthesis of Nepalese and eastern Indian artistic traditions prevalent in Central Tibet during the mid-fourteenth century.