Page 107 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Through its beauty, complexity, and energy, this exquisite figure Chakrasamvara features prominently across all Tibetan Buddhist
expresses one of the most important transcendental ideals in Buddhist schools and is the principal transformative deity of both Kagyu and
art – the supreme bliss of enlightenment attained through the perfect Sakya lineages. Rising to great prominence in the 14th-16th centuries,
union of wisdom and compassion. both these orders formed strong ties with the Imperial Yuan and Ming
Courts, and Tibetan Buddhist iconography strongly informed Buddhist
The male deity, Chakrasamvara, represents Buddha-like compassion. art of the early Ming period.
The female deity, Vajravarahi, embodies Buddha-like wisdom. They are
depicted here in ecstatic embrace. He cradles her in his primary arms, Compare with a related but larger gilt-bronze figure of Chakrasamvara,
producing vajrahumkara mudra by crossing the vajra and ghanta in his 15th century, illustrated by F.Rüttimann, Liebeskunst: Liebeslust und
hands, symbolising that wisdom and compassion have dissolved into Liebesleid in der Weltkunst, Zurich, 2002, p.131, no.93, which was
one perfect interpenetrative union. sold at Bonhams New York, 16 March 2015, lot 18.

Chakrasamvara (literally meaning ‘Wheel of Bliss’) is the transformative
deity yiddam at the heart of the ‘Chakrasamvara Tantra’, one of the
main Tantric Wisdom traditions. This sculpture sought to inspire
the practitioner to complete his practice and achieve that same
blissful state of mind. Until then, every symbolic nuance of the
deity’s iconography will help him to fully comprehend the deity’s
consciousness.

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