Page 30 - Sporer Collection of Himalayan bronzes

9
A BRONZE FIGURE OF SAMVARA WITH YOGINI
TIBET, 12TH CENTURY

Exquisitely modeled with Samvara and Yogini in
embrace, wearing a garland of severed heads, striding
in alidhasana over two prostrate fgures on a double-
lotus base with beaded rim, dressed in a short dhoti and
holding a multitude of implements, the faces with cold
gilding and hair with traces of red polychromy, his
hair secured by a tiara and pulled into a high chignon
topped with small fgures of Buddha
8√ in. (22.5 cm.) high

$120,000-180,000

PROVENANCE:

The Sporer Collection, New Jersey, acquired between
1962 and 1985

PUBLISHED:

Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item
no. 24022

The present fgure is simply ornamented yet
sumptuously cast. Many scholars contend that Samvara
arises out of a pre-Buddhist deity, and indeed, the third eye,
snakes, and the head of Brahma are Shaiva iconography.
From the naturalistic proportions to the treatment of details
such as in the lotus base and garland of severed heads,
this sculpture stylistically echoes fgures from the late Pala
style, such as the contemporaneous Kapaladhara Hevajra
from the Potala Collection (see U.von Schroeder, Buddhist
Sculptures in Tibet; India and Nepal, 2001, pp.302-303, cat.
no.102D). The simple lotus fowerheads stippled onto the
Yogini’s sash are seen in early Western Tibet bronzes from
the 11th century. Certain features testify to this formative
period in which Tibet was infuenced from communities
in India, appropriating Indian forms while instilling the
fgure’s character with Tibetan stylizations. The rendering
of the rounded face, with bulging eyes and hairy wrinkly
eyebrows, reveals a more Tibetan treatment of the features.
The present fgure exemplifes the formative years of Tibetan
bronze development, before the fgures were made with
the full suite of iconographic details characteristic of
Himalayan Buddhism.

The inscription translates to:
This statute of supreme emanation body,
made for the many Dharma Rajas,
and for all parents,
created by Dharma king dkon mchog
rgyal dbang,
May I pray to achieve two kinds
of benefts.

28 THE SPORER COLLECTION OF HIMALAYAN SCULPTURE