Mark Rasmussen
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Lot 26
A gilt copper alloy figure of Chakrasamvara Tibet, 15th century
14 September 2015, 14:00 EDT
New YorkUS$400,000 - US$600,000
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A gilt copper alloy figure of Chakrasamvara
Tibet, 15th century
Masterfully cast, the yidam with twelve arms holding various ritual implements and the elephant skin across his back, his primary arms embracing his consort Vajravarahi bedecked in the panchamudra representing the five Buddha Families.
10 in. (25.4 cm) high
Masterfully cast, the yidam with twelve arms holding various ritual implements and the elephant skin across his back, his primary arms embracing his consort Vajravarahi bedecked in the panchamudra representing the five Buddha Families.
10 in. (25.4 cm) high
Footnotes
西藏 十五世紀 銅鎏金勝樂金剛像
Through its beauty, complexity, and vigor, this masterpiece of Tibetan sculpture expresses one of the most important transcendental ideals in Buddhist art – the supreme bliss of enlightenment attained through the perfect union of wisdom and compassion (skillful means).
The male deity, Chakrasamvara, represents Buddha-like compassion. The female deity, Vajravarahi, embodies Buddha-like wisdom. They are depicted here in ecstatic embrace. He cradles her in his primary arms, producing vajrahumkara mudra by crossing the vajra and ghanta in his hands, symbolizing that wisdom and compassion have dissolved into one perfect interpenetrative union.
The sculpture wondrously unifies such dualities. Predominant diagonal registers extend from the outstretched elephant skin behind his shoulders to his feet, crossing the primary hands and further emphasizing the vajrahumkara imagery. The symmetry of his arms contrasts the sway of his bent knees and sweeping festoons. He is at once solid yet fluid, powerful yet graceful. With his arresting eyes piercing forward from the furrowed brow, the sculpture's overall effect is somehow hieratic yet enigmatic.
Its finer details are meticulously executed. Almost tucked out of view, his upper thighs are clad in intricate textiles. His attributes are inventive, such as the curved shaft of his axe, the twisted locks of Brahma's head, and the chased rim of his curved knife. The rich gilding is punctuated with inset turquoise – each jewelry element confidently chased. Vajravarahi wears the panchamudra, or 'five ornaments', worn by females of the highest yoga tantra. Her apron, in particular, mesmerizes with its complex interlaced floral medallions and ghanta pendants.
Compare the apron, long beaded festoons with circular pendants, crown types, broad faces, and knitted brows with two 15th-century Chinese silk images of the deity in private collections: www.himalayanart.org/items/101608 & www.himalayanart.org/items/90916. Also compare a 15th-century Nepalese paubha published in Huntington, Leaves from the Bodhi Tree, Dayton, 1990, no. 117. Lastly, compare related sculptural examples published in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, nos. 264C & 270D, and a bronze of Hevajra from a Shakya monastery: www.himalayanart.org/items/31935.
Featuring prominently across all Tibetan Buddhist schools, gilt bronze figures of Chakrasamvara with Vajravarahi demanded the best craftsmen in order to produce complex meditational images that could both express and inspire the most exquisite state of mind.
Referenced:
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/33006
Provenance:
Christie's, London, 6 May 1975, lot 50
Phillip Goldman Collection, 1975-2002
Sotheby's, New York, 21 March 2002, lot 161
Private Wisconsin Collection