With the Destruction of India's Buddhist monasteries in 1203, Tibet lost its main source of artistic inspiration. Nepal was the only nearby surviving center of traditional arts, where Newar
artists of the Kathmandu valley had formed their own artistic style. Originally basing their work on Indian artistic models, the Newar gradually developed their own style demonstrating their
excellence in painting, sculpture, and woodworking. These talents were not lost on the Tibetans, who copied and learned from their neighbors as the style spread throughout Tibet. This style,
now known as Beri, flourished for more than four centuries, reaching its height from 1360 to 1460, when it was adopted as Tibet's universal painting style.
In this second publication and related exhibition in the "Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series," the noted scholar David Jackson identifies the full extent of the Beri style, and shows the
chronological development, religious patronage, and geographic scope that define the development of Beri style. In order to contradict the erroneous limitation imposed by early scholars'
assumption that Beri is limited to the Ngor, Jackson gives a basic stylistic overview of five key features unique to Beri, as well as providing examples of the Early, Universal Tibetan Style,
and Later Beri periods.
Featuring several major works, including a painting of four minutely detailed mandalas by fifteenth-century Newari artists and the last two known commissions in the Beri style, The Nepalese
Legacy in Tibetan Painting places Beri in a context more complex than previously imagined.
