Page 39 - Christie's July 9th 2020 Hong Kong Buddhist Art Under Empire

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION
SOLD TO BENEFIT MENTAL HEALTH CHARITIES IN ASIA
亞洲私人珍藏 — 有關收益將捐贈予亞洲精神健康慈善機構

2708
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF PALDEN LHAMO
QIANLONG INCISED SEVEN-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE
PERIOD (1736-1795)
The fierce goddess is seated sideways on a flayed skin on top
of a mule over a separately cast rocky base carved with waves
surrounding a sea of swirling blood. The figure is shown with
her right arm upraised and left holding a kapala, adorned in
beaded jewellery and a garland of severed heads over her
shoulders. Her wrathful face is cast with bulging eyes and
a third eye on the forehead, below flame-like hair. There are
traces of red pigment to the hair, mouth and the mouth of the
mule. The base bears a seven-character inscription.
5 ⅝ in. (14.5 cm.) overall high
HK$100,000-150,000 US$13,000-19,000

PROVENANCE
Sold at Christie’s London, 15 November 2000, lot 88
Palden Lhamo, or Sri Devi in Sanskrit, is the Tibetan Protectress
who is normally portrayed riding a horse and is the most important
guardian deity of Tibetan Buddhism. The fierce nature of this character,
intensified by the fiery red hair, represents one of the many wrathful
deities who are reputed to keep evil at bay. A closely related larger
example in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, also inscribed, was
included in the exhibition Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected
in the Qing Palace, Hong Kong, 1992, and is illustrated in the catalogue p.
107, col. pl. 78.

清乾隆 鎏金銅吉祥天母像
「大清乾隆年敬造」刻款

來源
倫敦佳士得，2000 年 11 月 15 日，拍品 88 號

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