Page 160 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

924
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF KAPALADHARA HEVAJRA
CENTRAL TIBET, CIRCA 1430-1450
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61908
7 5/8 in. (19.5 cm) high
$250,000 - 350,000

藏中 約1430至1450年 銅鎏金喜金剛像

A prized subject in Tibetan sculpture, the yidam Hevajra coupled with his consort Nairatmya
dissolve in yabyum, into a complete interpenetrative union. Hevajra is the principal
meditational deity of the high Anuttarayoga Tantras and Nairatmya is a tantric form of
Prajnaparamita, the Mother of all Buddhas. Here, Hevajra’s sixteen radiating arms carry
skull cups containing eight animals on one side, representing the Eight Diseases, and eight
deities on the other side, representing the accomplished relief from each disease. Superbly
modeled and thickly gilded, this sophisticated bronze follows the work of Sonam Gyaltsen,
an artist commissioned by the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism around 1430, and a
recently identified Tibetan master sculptor (cf. Watt in Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2018,
lot 3033).

Compare this bronze’s style and high quality with another gilt bronze Hevajra in Sakya
Monastery, Shigatse, Central Tibet, attributed by Watt to Sonam Gyaltsen or his atelier
(HAR 31935). The sculpture’s style and quality are indicative of Tibetan art’s renaissance in
the 15th-century. The tight formation of the male deity’s neatly arranged arms is shared by a
gilt bronze Hevajra in Musée Guimet, Paris (HAR 85922).

Among the animals representing diseases modeled in the skull cups is a bad-tempered cat
(liver disease), a sharabha (disease of the spleen), a man (smallpox), a camel (leprosy), a
bull (brain hemorrhage), a horse (insanity), and an elephant (lung disease). As Hevajra and
Nairatmya represent the chrysalis by which to transcend these diseases, the animals turn
inwards towards the divine couple, while the deities turn outwards, bestowing health and
good fortune on the viewer.

Provenance
Private Swiss Collection, purchased in Nepal in 1960s
Koller, Zurich, 2 and 3 June 2015, lot 120

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