Page 14 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC

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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE BERLIN COLLECTOR This monumental, elegant sculpture of Chakramsavara and his
consort Vajravarahi in ecstatic union demonstrates classical
A MONUMENTAL GILT-COPPER GROUP OF Nepalese style with its use of luxuriant gilding and decorative
CHAKRASAMVARA AND VAJRAVARAHI beading. The present work exhibits many of the hallmarks
Nepal, 16th/17th Century of the de rigueur Nepalese style with low hairline and broad
forehead; wide almond-shaped eyes; wide, powerful shoulders;
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13384. dynamic movement and posture; elaborate beaded jewelry and
Height: 21 ½ in. (54.6 cm) tassels; and solid cast ritual implements.

PROVENANCE Chakramsavara and Vajravarahi wear the tantric adornments
Private Berlin collection, acquired before 1971. of the six bone ornaments representing the six paramitas or
perfections. These textural bone ornaments appear in beaded
LITERATURE rows in the present work, and also represent the Five Dhyani
Weltkunst (issue no. 17), Munich, 1 September 1971, p. 1040. Buddhas: (1) the crown of the head, symbolizing dhyana or
concentration and Buddha Akshobhya; (2) the earrings that
$ 100,000-150,000 symbolize kshanti or patience and the Buddha Amitabha; (3)
the necklace that symbolizes dana or generosity and Buddha
Ratnasambhava; (4) the armlets and anklets that symbolize
shila or discipline and the Buddha Vairocana; (5) the girdle
and apron that symbolizes virya or exertion and Buddha
Amoghasiddhi; and (6) the crisscrossed torso ornament that
symbolizes prajña or wisdom and Buddha Vajradhara.

From Chakrasamvara’s neck hangs a garland of fty-one
severed heads strung on a length of human intestine and the
hair of a corpse, signifying both the puri cation of speech and
the puri cation of the fty-one mental factors according to the
Chittamatra or Mind-Only School as described by Asanga.

His twelve arms hold various ritual implements including a
ghanta, damaru, kartrika, pasha and khatvanga; the consort
Vajravarahi with both legs awrapped around the waist of her
partner, holds in the left hand a kapala and the right hand a
kartrika. Together they stand atop crushed and supine gures
holding various wrathful implements.

Compare the current work with another large-scale Nepalese
bronze group depicting Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi
dated to the 17th Century in the Newark Museum of Art, acc.
no. 69.31, also illustrated in U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan
Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 387, pl. 105E.

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