Page 130 - Christies Alsdorf Collection PART 2 Sept 24 2020 NYC

崇聖御寶 - 詹姆斯及瑪麗蓮 ·阿爾斯多夫珍藏

942

A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VIGHNANTAKA 尼泊爾 公元1297年 鎏金銅軍荼利明王立像
NEPAL, DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO NEPAL SAMVAT 417 (1297)
來源:
Striding in alidhasana on a prostrate figure of Ganapati holding a vajra and ghanta in his Ian Alsop，華盛頓，1984年6月30日。
primary hands, clad in an elephant skin and adorned with snakes and various jewelry, 詹姆斯及瑪麗蓮·阿爾斯多夫珍藏，芝加哥。
the four faces centered by a third eye, the hair arranged in a wide chignon from which
emerges the head of a snake, with an inscription at the back of the lotus base
4¿in. (10.5 cm.) high
$8,000-12,000

PROVENANCE:
Ian Alsop, Washington D.C., 30 June 1984.
The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago.

LITERATURE:
I. Alsop, "Five Dated Nepalese Sculptures," Artibus Asiae, vol. XLV, 2/3, 1984, fig. 2.
This dynamic representation of the Newari Buddhist deity, Vighnantaka, is
distinguished by the small inscription at the back of the base, which provides a Nepal
samvat date of 417, corresponding to 1297. According to Ian Alsop, as elucidated in
"Five Dated Nepalese Sculptures," Artibus Asiae, vol. XLV, 2/3, 1984, this is perhaps
the only known inscribed Nepalese gilt-bronze from the thirteenth century.

Vighnantaka, the remover of obstacles, tramples on the Hindu god, Ganesha, who
is regarded within the Hindu tradition as the remover of obstacles himself; however,
the unusual icongraphy of the present figure derives from a Newari legend where
Vighnantaka subdues Ganesha after the god was angered by an acharya who forgot to
offer sacrifices to the god.

Alsop notes that the present figure is rare in that it follows exactly the iconographic
descriptions of the deity from the sadhana of the Nispannayogavali, from the late
eleventh-early twelfth century. Other representations of the deity have mistakenly
placed a skull bowl and curved knife in the primary hands, an apparent conflation with
the deity, Mahakala, who fulfilled a similar religious function.

The inscription on the reverse of the base, translated from Newari, reads:
"On the full moon of the bright half of Jyestha, in the year 417, on a Thursday. May it
be good."

(inscription)

128 PART II