佛像鉴定鉴赏收藏

尺寸：高21cm
年代：明代
质地：铜鎏金
风格：永乐宫廷
来源：拍卖会
成交：未成交(2014.12)
参阅：香港苏富比
鉴赏：
A MAGNIFICENT AND EXTREMELY FINE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRADHARA
MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGLE
seated in vajraparyankasana, with both hands crossed in prajnalinganabhinayamudra clasping avajra and ghanta, wearing an eight leaf crown enclosing the high scrolling chignon set with acintamani finial, the meditative face with crisply cast features, framed by large wheel-shaped earrings, wearing extravagant beaded jewellery and belt, a dhoti and a scarf draped across the shoulders and off the arms, supported by a double lotus pedestal inscribed Da Ming Yongle nian shi, the base engraved with a visvavajra
21 cm., 8 1/4 in.

品相说明:
The piece is in excellent condition with only very minor occasional traces of wear to the original gilding on the extremities. The base plate is intact.

Provenance
The Speelman Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th October 2006, lot 811.

Catalogue Note
Vajradhara is considered to be the embodiment of all Buddhist Wisdom, the teacher of all Tantras. He is the Adi Buddha, Primordial Enlightened Being, related to the seminal teachings of the Sakya order and the Karma Kagyu order, two Tibetan Buddhist denominations that had significant influence in the court of Chengzu, the Yongle Emperor. Thus, fitting iconography for a sculpture perhaps intended as an imperial gift to a hierarch of either order. Official accounts, in particular the court record of daily events, Xizang shiliao, document numerous imperial gifts to Tibetan lamas, and to their temples and monasteries in the Chinese capital and Tibet. An entry in the Xizang shiliao on the eighth day of the fourth month of the female fire pig year, 1407, records that the emperor had a vision of his spiritual mentor the Fifth Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu order, Dezhin Shegpa (De), “….Chengzu sees the figure of De blazing like the sun, one span high … has an image made according to his vision and gives it to De …”, see Karmay, 1975, pp. 77-8. Tibetan religious leaders were often perceived as manifestions of deities, so the emperor’s vision of his religious mentor may well have been in the guise of say Vajradhara, the spiritual progenitor of Dezhin Shegpa’s Kagyu order, and his gift a gilt bronze very much like this one span high Vajradhara with the golden colour of the blazing sun. Four very similar Yongle period gilt bronzes of Vajradhara are recorded, all now in Tibetan monastery collections, illustrated by Ulrich, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, von Schroeder, pp. 1250-1, pls. 343A-E.