Page 94 - 2019 September 11th Christie's New York Chiense Art Himalayan bronzes and art

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A BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAYOGINI
TIBET, 14TH-15TH CENTURY
4æ in. (12.1 cm.) high

$6,000-8,000

PROVENANCE
Private collection, United Kingdom, 1990s, by repute.
The principal female deity of the Chakrasamvara Tantra,
Vajrayogini stands in a powerful lunge atop corpses, a blood-flled
skull cup held to her mouth and a curved knife in her hanging
hand. She is a fully-enlightened being who epitomizes the
practice of tantra, the expedient Buddhist path to enlightenment,
which entails destruction of human ego and the triumph over the
duality of conventional and ultimate truth. These principles are
captured in the skulls that adorn her naked body and the blood she
transforms to amrita. The present lot is cast in a copper-rich alloy,
which appears to have previously been gilded.
The single lotus base and overall style are similar to a fourteenth-
century dakini illustrated in U. von Schroeder in Indo-Tibetan
Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 442-443, fg. 119B.
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24561.

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