佛像鉴定鉴赏收藏

尺寸：高21.8cm
年代：15世纪(约1430年)
质地：铜鎏金
风格：西藏 索南坚赞
来源：拍卖会
成交：300,000美元(2018.03)
参阅：纽约邦瀚斯
鉴赏：
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAHACHAKRA VAJRAPANI
ATTRIBUTED TO SONAM GYALTSEN (A. 15TH CENTURY),
CENTRAL TIBET, CIRCA 1430
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61568
8 3/8 in. (21.8 cm) high

西藏 約1430年 銅鎏金大輪金剛手像
傳為索南堅贊之作
古比特佛像网, 编号: 金刚手菩萨:金刚手菩萨095

This vigorous and bold sculpture depicts the fierce Mahachakra-Vajrapani embracing his bejeweled consort (prajna) in yab-yum. Mahachakra-Vajrapani, a yidam (or meditational deity), is most often depicted with three heads and six arms, carrying a vajra and snakes, and treading on Brahma and Shiva. He wears an animal skin around his waist with a serpent-headed belt tied at the back, while his consort holds a kapala in her left hand and vajra in her right.

As Dr. Pal notes about a similar pair formerly in the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection and now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Pal, Art of Tibet, Los Angeles, 1983, p.211): “Both figures convey a robust sense of volume with thick, solid limbs revealing subtle transitions from one area of the body to another…the fingers of the hands are delicately rendered, while the expressive faces exhibit features that are precisely articulated and modeled with sensitivity.”

An abundance of submissive snakes coil around the limbs and crowns of the divine couple, their hoods upturned and alert. The consort wears a shimmering silk garment of incised flowers and auspicious emblems, overlain with a beaded festoon fastened by a belt of inset turquoise lozenges draped in a sweeping motion as she raises her left leg around Vajrapani's hip. One pendant descends across the knee in a particular flourish, dangling before the furrowed brow of the immaculately modeled tiger skin hugging her lover's right leg. Their hair is chased and while hers cascades downwards like a waterfall, his mushrooms upwards.

Mahachakra is a Tantric form of the bodhisattva Vajrapani, appearing as a meditational deity and regarded as completely enlightened. Just as there are many forms of Vajrapani, so too are there many varieties of Mahachakra, both with consort and without, with retinue figures or solitary. In Tibet, entreaties are considered more efficacious when made to a deity in the company of their consort, and the yidam adopted by monks and priests are invariably represented in the yab-yum attitude.

Showing like refinement and treatment of regalia as the Avalokiteshvara Sahasrabhujalokeshvara included in this sale (lot 3033) (for instance, the bracelets and armbands comprised of a pointed five-lobed leaf inset with turquoise borne from three lotus petals), this work can immediately and confidently be attributed to the master sculptor Sonam Gyaltsen, identified by inscription on the previous lot. Similarly, the treatment of the present lot's tiger skin around the rear and right leg is almost identical to that of a Chakrasamvara from the artist's oeuvre sold by Bonhams, New York, 16 March 2015, lot 18.

Provenance
Private Collection, London
Private Collection, New York

参阅: https://www.himalayanart.org/items/61577

Vajrapani, Mahachakra (Tibetan: chag na dor je, kor lo chen po. English: The Great Wheel Vajra Holder). Mahachakra is a Tantric form of the bodhisattva Vajrapani appearing as a meditational deity - regarded as completely enlightened. Just as there are many forms of Vajrapani, so also are there many varieties of Mahachakra both with consort and without.

Textual Description: (from the Mitra Gyatsa) “…above a lotus and sun seat, Brahma and Indra, is Vajrapani with a blue cape, three faces and six hands. The right [face] is white, left red, each with three eyes. With six hands, the first two hold a vajra and a wrathful gesture upraised. The middle two are folded respectfully embracing the consort … possessed of beauty, blue [in colour], holding a curved knife and skullcup. The lower two grasp a snake, at the [level of the] waist, as food. The right leg is bent, left straight.” (Description: rgyud sde kun btus, vol.23, folio 215).

Lineage: Vajradhara, Vajrapani, Dakini Simhamukha, mahasiddha Shavaripa, Maha Pandita Javaripa, Pandita Devapurnamati, the translator Gar Chokyi Zangpo, kalyanamitra Rinchen Ngodrup, Mar Chokyi Gyaltsen, Mar Sherab Dorje, Mar Tubpa Sherab, Mar Tsondru Dorje, Mar Chogyal Sherab, Mar Shakya Drubpa, etc. (Extracted from the rgyud sde kun btus, vol.30, folio 75-6).

Bibliographic reference: Arya Nilambaradhara Vajrapani Rudratri Vinaya Tantra-nama, Toh 454, 455 and No.46 in the Gyu de kuntu set of mandalas.

Jeff Watt [updated 2-2018]