Page 18 - Indian, Himalaya and Asian Art Bonhams Setp 2015

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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF CHAKRASAMVARA
Tibet, Densatil style, 14th/15th century
Embracing with slightly wrathful faces and lips touching, his arms wrapped around Vajravarahi
crossing a lotus and ghanta in his primary hands, the others outstretched holding the feet
of the elephant skin (now lost), a damaru, and kapala, their lissome bodies loaded with inset
jewelry, beaded festoons, and garlands of severed heads.
7 1/2 in. (19 cm) high
$30,000 - 50,000
西藏 丹薩替風格 十四／十五世紀 銅鎏金勝樂金剛像
This is a rare representation of Chakrasamvara, which would have likely been part of an
ensemble of five Chakrasamvaras, each assigned to one of the Buddha families. Holding
a lotus in his primary right hand, instead of the typical vajra, this figure thus pertains to the
Amitabha Buddha family.
The heavy casting and rich gilding relate to works produced at the famed Densatil monastery
and surrounding region of south central Tibet. Compare these, and similar treatments of the
strands of pearls descending below the skull-crowns, the beaded bangles around their arms
and ankles, the severed-head garlands, and the structural tang descending between his legs,
to figures of Kalachakra associated with Densatil sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 25 March 1999,
lot 104; and 23 March 2000, lot 82 and a Samvara published in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan
Bronzes, New Delhi, 2008, p. 434, 115C.
Also compare to a plaque with Saptadashashirshi Shri Devi and figures of Vajravarahi published in
Czaja and Proser (ed.), Golden Visions of Densatil, New York, 2013, pp. 166-71, nos 42-4. Lastly,
to a Chakrasamvara held in the Capital Museum, Beijing (www.himalayanart.org/items/59818).
Referenced
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/33026
Provenance
Collection of Fritz Levi, New York, acquired 1950s-1970s
Thence by descent

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