Page 42 - Indian, Himalaya and Asian Art Bonhams Setp 2015

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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF CHAKRASAMVARA
Tibet, 15th century
Masterfully cast, the yidam with twelve arms holding various ritual implements and the elephant
skin across his back, his primary arms embracing his consort Vajravarahi bedecked in the
panchamudra representing the five Buddha Families.
10 in. (25.4 cm) high
$400,000 - 600,000

西藏 十五世紀 銅鎏金勝樂金剛像

Through its beauty, complexity, and vigor, this masterpiece of Tibetan sculpture expresses
one of the most important transcendental ideals in Buddhist art – the supreme bliss of
enlightenment attained through the perfect union of wisdom and compassion (skillful means).

The male deity, Chakrasamvara, represents Buddha-like compassion. The female deity,
Vajravarahi, embodies Buddha-like wisdom. They are depicted here in ecstatic embrace. He
cradles her in his primary arms, producing vajrahumkara mudra by crossing the vajra and
ghanta in his hands, symbolizing that wisdom and compassion have dissolved into one perfect
interpenetrative union.

The sculpture wondrously unifies such dualities. Predominant diagonal registers extend from
the outstretched elephant skin behind his shoulders to his feet, crossing the primary hands and
further emphasizing the vajrahumkara imagery. The symmetry of his arms contrasts the sway
of his bent knees and sweeping festoons. He is at once solid yet fluid, powerful yet graceful.
With his arresting eyes piercing forward from the furrowed brow, the sculpture’s overall effect is
somehow hieratic yet enigmatic.

Its finer details are meticulously executed. Almost tucked out of view, his upper thighs are
clad in intricate textiles. His attributes are inventive, such as the curved shaft of his axe, the
twisted locks of Brahma’s head, and the chased rim of his curved knife. The rich gilding is
punctuated with inset turquoise – each jewelry element confidently chased. Vajravarahi wears
the panchamudra, or ‘five ornaments’, worn by females of the highest yoga tantra. Her apron,
in particular, mesmerizes with its complex interlaced floral medallions and ghanta pendants.

Compare the apron, long beaded festoons with circular pendants, crown types, broad faces,
and knitted brows with two 15th-century Chinese silk images of the deity in private collections:
www.himalayanart.org/items/101608 & www.himalayanart.org/items/90916. Also compare a
15th-century Nepalese paubha published in Huntington, Leaves from the Bodhi Tree, Dayton,
1990, no. 117. Lastly, compare related sculptural examples published in von Schroeder,
Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, nos. 264C & 270D, and a bronze of Hevajra
from a Shakya monastery: www.himalayanart.org/items/31935.

Featuring prominently across all Tibetan Buddhist schools, gilt bronze figures of
Chakrasamvara with Vajravarahi demanded the best craftsmen in order to produce complex
meditational images that could both express and inspire the most exquisite state of mind.

Referenced
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/33006

Provenance
Christie’s, London, 6 May 1975, lot 50
Phillip Goldman Collection, 1975-2002
Sotheby’s, New York, 21 March 2002, lot 161
Private Wisconsin Collection

40 | BONHAMS