Page 118 - 2020 December 10 Sotheby's Paris Arts of Asia Chinese Art

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RARE ET GRANDE STATUETTE DE YIDAM EN The attributes are missing from the hands of this
BRONZE DORÉ powerfully modelled tantric deity, making the iconography
DYNASTIE MING, DÉBUT XV - MILIEU DU XV uncertain. The ithyphallic god displays attributes that
E
E
SIÈCLE distinguish the wrathful Yidam deities of Tibetan Vajrayana
Buddhism, including a flaming moustache and beard; a
la statuette finement sculptée et richement dorée, now fragmentary garland of severed heads; a skull crown;
debout sur un double socle lotiforme, écrasant deux a beaded apron of human bone; a snake coiled around a
personnages enlacés sous chaque pied, le bras droit levé mass of flaming hair; and one draped over the left shoulder
près de la tête, l’attitude féroce, la tête courroucée aux and around the corpulent body. Regal jewellery adorns
yeux exorbités, la bouche ouverte aux lèvres enflammées ears, arms and ankles, and a billowing scarf frames the
révélant des dents acérées, les narines évasées, un deity as he stands with feet planted in a dramatic and
troisième œil sur le front, la chevelure rouge dressée aggressive posture.
derrière une couronne à cinq pointes, le corps replet The Chinese symbol of two embracing boys beneath the
couvert de bijoux et d’un serpent en guise de collier, les feet of the Yidam is an unusual feature in a Vajrayana
épaules couvertes d’une guirlande de têtes coupées, Buddhist context, and may not be original. The refined
vêtue d’un riche tablier à décor de chaînes perlées et de modelling of the deity, however, bears stylistic and
motifs ajourés fleurdelisés, non scellée iconographic similarities to good early Ming gilt bronze
35,2 cm (avec la base), 13⅞ in. (with the base) sculpture: compare the style and modelling of the
A rare and large gilt-bronze figure of Yidam, Ming Dynasty, earrings with the Zhengtong period Buddha dated 1439,
early to mid-15th century lot 18 in this sale. The large snake head entwined with
its own tail at the abdomen is a classic design used in
80 000-150 000 € tantric imagery throughout the Yongle (1403-24) and
700 000-1 310 000 HK$ 89 000-167 000 US$ Xuande period (1426-36), cf. the Vajrabhairava formerly
in the A&J Speelman collection, Sotheby’s Hong Kong,
明十五世紀早至中期 October 7, 2006, pp. 92-9, lot 812: cf. also the bone apron
and the powerful modelling of a mid fifteenth century
鎏金銅本尊立像 Guhyasadhana Dharmaraja in the Potala, Lhasa, see Ulrich
von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong,
2001, Vol. II, p. 1289, pl. 362C.
Close similarities to stylistic and iconographic design in
classic early Ming Vajrayana gilt bronze sculpture suggests
that this figure may be confidently dated to the fifteenth
century. A Mahakala in the Palace Museum, Beijing, in The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum:
Buddhist Statues of Tibet, Hong Kong, 2003, pp. 180-1,
cat. no. 172, is undated but has as an almost identical
pedestal design and similar jewellery to a Vajradhara dated
1436 in the Beijing Capital Museum, in Selected Works
on Ancient Buddhist Statues, Beijing, 2005, fig. 58, see
Michael Henss, Buddhist Art in Tibet, Ulm, 2008, p. 214,
fig. 36. The Palace Museum Mahakala is thus likely to date
to the first half of the fifteenth century. Stylistic similarities
between the present tantric figure and the Palace Museum
Mahakala would suggest that this Yidam may also be
dated early to mid fifteenth century.

116 ARTS D’ASIE