Footnotes

A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VIRUPA
TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY

西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金毘魯巴像

Published:
Jan van Alphen, Cast for Eternity, Antwerp, 2003, p. 209, no. 71.

Exhibited:
Cast for Eternity, Antwerp Ethnographic Museum, Belgium, 12 April 2005 - 26 June 2005.

Provenance:
With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970s

This Tibetan sculpture pays homage to one of the great luminaries of Indian Buddhism, the c. 9th-century Buddhist master, Virupa. Like other mahasiddhas (great adepts) of the medieval period, Virupa spent years in formal Buddhist training before withdrawing from monastic life to follow his own path. He is credited with a hyper-efficient meditative practice known as lamdre ("The Path with the Result"), which was later introduced to Tibet by the Indian teacher Gayadhara (d. 1103) and became a central tantric tradition within the Sakya school. Famed both for his exceptional wisdom and his wild ways, the iconography of this image is rooted in a famous episode from Virupa's life when, pointing his finger at the sun, he stopped its rotation in order to avoid paying his bar tab. (See the same iconography in another image of Virupa of about the same period, previously in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, sold at Bonhams, Hong Kong, 7 October 2019, lot 802.)

Formerly an abbot of Nalanda, Virupa received the 'Path', which is based mainly on the Hevajra Tantra, from the deity Vajra Nairatmya after giving up on decades of unsuccessful attempts at the Chakrasamvara Tantra. His subsequent rituals cost him his affiliation, as other members of the monastic hierarchy frowned upon his use of meat and alcohol. Banished from Nalanda, he wandered as a yogin, performing a number of miracles.

In this 15th-to-16th-century work, the saint holds his left index finger to the sun while supporting himself with the left hand pressed behind him on a lotus seat covered with an antelope skin. Works showing the saint in this posture, full bodied, lounging with a gana-like effect are less frequently depicted, though these characteristics are shared by another Virupa published in Amy Heller, Tibetan Art, 1999, p. 164, no. 89. A Buddhist manuscript is folded into his chignon, and a floral garland falls around the shoulders, down the torso, and to his feet. A meditation strap—recalling his many hours in meditation—encircles his wide girth and the left shin. The figure is richly gilded and inset with turquoise stones. The face is painted gold and the lips, eyes, and eyebrows are likewise painted in the Tibetan manner, imparting a life-like appearance.

The figure sits on a distinctive double lotus base with broad, rounded petals. An inscription and a delicately beaded border line the lower rim. Identical bases are shared by a set of six Sakya lamdre masters which sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2017, lot 3262. In addition, two other portraits from the set, one of Damarupa (c.9th century) and the other of Chogyal Phagpa Lodro Gyaltsen (1235-80), are held in the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, published in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, pp. 456-7, nos. 126F-G. The present Virupa very likely belongs to this set also.

A baseplate, secured by a rim beneath the seat, bears a double thunderbolt (visvavajra) design similar to that on a c. 15th century Milarepa sculpture from the Nyingjei Lam Collection sold at Sotheby's, New York, 21 March, 2023, lot 108.

Bonhams would like to thank Jane Casey for her assistance in preparing this lot.