NEPAL, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

Details

A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF GUHYASAMAJA AKSHOBYAVAJRA
NEPAL, 18TH-19TH CENTURY
Seated in dyanasana with consort Sparshavajri in his arms, their central faces gazing at each other, surmounted by jeweled crowns, each with a vajra and bell in their primary hands and various implements in the others, wearing ornate jewelry and beaded festoons, her legs wrapped around his waist, all on a single lotus base above a rectangular pedestal adorned with a draped textile, incised petals, and two lions
7 ½ in. (19 cm.) high

Provenance

Alice Boney, New York, by 1980.
The Irving Collection, no. 804.

Lot Essay

The present sculpture represents the meditational deity, Akshobyavajra, as he is described in the Guhyasamaja Tantra, a highly important Vajrayana Buddhist text describing the unexcelled class of yidam or meditational deity. Three-headed, six-armed, and in union with his consort, he represents the ultimate form of Buddha Akshobhya while the many attributes in his other hands represent the enlightened qualities of the other four Buddha families. The bright copper tone of this metal image, upon which small traces of polychrome remain, point to its Nepalese origin. The pedestal is fashioned like those that more commonly support the deity in his tathagata manifestation while the inclusion of lions rather than elephants is unusual, also pointing to the likelihood of this object’s Newar Buddhist origin, in which there is more iconographical flexibility.

Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org), item no. 24473.

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