A GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI

TIBETO-CHINESE, YONGLE MARK AND PERIOD (1403-24)

Details

A GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
Tibeto-Chinese, Yongle Mark and Period (1403-24)
Finely cast seated in dhyanasana on a double lotus base with beaded rims, his left hand in vitarka mudra and his right hand holding a vajra, wearing a flowing dhoti and scarf, beaded necklaces, and belts with pendent jewels and foliate disk-shaped earrings, his face in contemplative expression surmounted by an elaborate eight-leaf crown, his hair drawn into a high chignon topped with a lotus bud finial, incised with a six character-Yongle mark at the front of the base, the base sealed with incised visvavajra
8¼ in. (21 cm.) high

Lot Essay

Starting in the Yuan Dynasty, the authority of Mongol rulers had become closely associated with Tibetan Buddhist or Lamaist rituals, culminating in masterpieces of Tibeto-Chinese art created during the first half of the 15th Century. The Ming Emperor Yongle (1403-24), a devout Buddhist, commissioned gilt bronzes bearing his reign mark both for personal religious practices and as gifts for Tibetan emissaries. Created in the Imperial ateliers in Beijing, they are unsurpassed in technical mastery of casting, ornamental detailing, chasing, and gilding; for another closely related figure of Vajrapani in the Berti Aschmann Collection, see H. Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, 1995, p. 107, cat. no. 59; and another in the Chang Foundation, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, 1993, p. 144f, cat. no. 65.

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