Page 44 - CHRISTIE'S Himalayan and SOutheast Asian Works of Art 09/13/17

Himalayan Sculpture

623
A RARE SILVER ALLOY FIGURE OF HAYAGRIVA

EASTERN TIBET, 19TH CENTURY
7√ in. (20 cm.) high

$30,000-50,000

西藏東部 十九世紀 銀合金馬頭明王立像

PROVENANCE

with Eskenazi Ltd., Milan, by 1979.
Acquired by the present owner from a private collection, Italy.

EXHIBITED

Arte Himalayana, Milan, 28 November - 22 December 1979.

PUBLISHED

R. Vitali, Arte Himalayana, Milan, 1979, cat. 62.
Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 24325

Hayagriva, “the horse-headed one,” is a wrathful protector deity associated With wings outstretched and the horse’s head emerging from his faming
with Avalokiteshvara, the god of compassion. Images of Hayagriva date back hair, Hayagriva is depicted in his most dynamic form, with three heads, six-
to post-Gupta India where he is depicted as a diminutive attendant fgure arms and four legs, in union with Prajna. Exquisitely modeled in silver alloy,
resembling a Yaksha, positioned below and fanking Avalokiteshvara, or Hayagriva and Prajna dance atop four human fgures on a lotus base. He holds
sometimes Tara (see R. Linrothe, Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities In a lotus and kapala in his primary hands and wears a garland of severed heads,
Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art, Boston, 1999, pp. 100-107). Though a skull tiara, multiple layers of beaded jewelry, an elephant skin draped over
rare, some of these early Indian images of the dwarf-like Hayagriva include the his back and a tiger skin tied around his waist. He gazes intensely at Prajna
horses head in his hair, a feature that becomes ubiquitous in later Himalayan who tilts her head back and raises her arms in ecstatic surrender. Not only is
examples (see a ninth-century stone stele in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, this work exceptionally modeled with tremendous attention to detail, but the
ibid, p.106, cat.no.85). Vigorously promoted as a tantric meditational deity use of silver, a rare metal in Himalayan production, establishes it as a highly
by the great Buddhist Adept Atisha (982-1054 CE), Hayagriva is eventually important commission.
assimilated into Himalayan Buddhism as an independent meditational deity
as seen in the present example.

(verso) Cover and illustration, R. Vitali, Arte Himalayana, Milan, 1979, cat. 62.