Page 30 - Indian and Himilayan Art

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. JOHN MANN

223
A POLYCHROMED BLACK STONE FIGURE OF A DAKINI,
POSSIBLY SIMHAMUKHA
TIBET, 16TH/17TH CENTURY
6 in. (15.2 cm.) high
$25,000-35,000

PROVENANCE:

with Rudi Oriental Arts, New York.
Acquired by the current owner from the above in the 1960s.

PUBLISHED:

Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 24168
Compare with a related stone fgure of Vajravarahi, another
wrathful female deity, dated slightly earlier (illustrated below).
Both feature dynamic fgures standing in energetic poses
and carved in the round, backed by openwork faming halos
to highlight the fgure from all sides. While a large corpus
of bronze fgures of wrathful subjects exists, examples in
stone are far rarer, making those such as the present work
highly coveted. For two other stone fgures, see P. Pal, Tibet:
Tradition and Change, 1997, pp.106-9 and 112-13. In each, the
central fgure is similarly carved in the round and backed by
an openwork aureole. Even more unusual is the amount of
polychromy retained in the present example.

A rare black stone fgure of Vajravarahi,
15th century, Nepal, 8¿ in. (20.6 cm.) high
Published in P. Pal, Himalayas, an Aesthetic
Adventure, 2003, p.227-228, fg.148
Christie’s New York on 14 September 2010,
lot 73, sold for $92,500
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