Footnotes

A MAHAMAYA MANDALA
CENTRAL TIBET, MID-15TH CENTURY

藏中 十五世紀中葉 大幻金剛曼荼羅

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

The principal deity at the center of this mandala is Mahamaya, whose textual sources derive from the Yoginitantra class called Mahamayatantra. According to a post-10th-century classification system, the text is categorized as a 'Mother tantra', both due to the centrality of the female deity and its emphasis on yogic practices related to the body. The description of the mandala is directly prescribed from these sources held within a larger body of texts called the Vajravali or "Diamond Garland". This mandala, of which this iconography is rarely depicted, would have been included as part of a set of mandalas coming from this 11th-century compilation of texts.

Although a female deity, Mahamaya is portrayed in blue in the form of a male heruka, shown with four faces and four arms. The principal arms hold a khatvanga and skullcup crossed at the chest while the secondary arms wield a bow and arrow. In a fierce, sexual embrace, she holds the blue consort Buddhadakini. Each wear mirroring skull crowns and jewelry stippled with white pigment to create elaborate designs. They are set in an aureole of tightly packed crimson scrolling flames against a dark blue background. Encircling Mahayama are multi-colored lotus petals containing red, green, blue, and yellow dakinis alternating between large skullcups placed atop offering pedestals.

The rest of the composition is dense with ornamental designs, all painted in deeply saturated tones in a tightly packed program of rich, textural patterns. The figures in the outer area of the mandala - along the top and lower registers as well as the peripheral area around the mandala - are set in orbs made of shaded scrolling vines outlined in black. These same stylistic techniques are also employed on other paintings from Central Tibet, including a thangka from Shalu monastery sold at Bonhams, New York, 21 March 2023, lot 506. All the figures are further set on top of a dark blue background covered with floral designs in a manner similar to a Marici mandala, sold at Bonhams, Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 117.

These colored patterns, foliate motifs, scrolling lines, and outlines of black are all reflective of a Newari aesthetic commissioned by the Tibetan Sakya monasteries of Shalu and Gyantse during the 14th and 15th centuries. The lineage descending from Vajradhara and the mahasiddha Kukkuripa (who is seen holding a dog) moves across the top and bottom registers to reveal portraits of some of the great Sakya masters in the register below. Not only were the Sakyas known for their tantric scholarship, but they also patronized the majority of grand artistic projects in the 15th century during a period regarded as a golden age of Tibetan Buddhist art.