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拍品专文
This powerfully-cast and lavishly-gilt image depicts one of the four female retinue figures, known generally as dakini, of the Chakrasamvara mandala. As indicated by the inscription at the back of the figure, the present work was produced at the great monastery of Tashilhunpo, one of the most important political, religious, and artistic centers of the seventeen and eighteenth centuries. As part of a larger grouping of three-dimensional mandala figures, the present work was clearly an important commission, possibly by one of the Panchen Lamas, who held their seat at Tashilhunpo monastery.
Standing in the powerful alidhasana stance on a double-lotus base with thickly beaded rims, the dakini holds a curved knife and skull cup in her primary hands, and a damaru (drum) in her upper proper right hand; her upper proper left hand would have at one time held a khatvanga staff. She is naked except for her ornate beaded jewelry, including a skirt from which hangs a ghanta (bell) on a chain, and is further adorned with a garland of skulls. The face is sensuously modeled, with full lips, hooked nose, and wide eyes below the arched brows, with the forehead centered by the third eye and surmounted by an elaborate skull crown.
In form and iconography, the figure closely follows other known depictions of the four dakini figures from the Chakrasamvara mandala. Although the four figures are named - Khandaroha, Lama, Rupini, and Dakini – they are only distinguished by the color of the skin, which is not indicated in the gilt-bronze medium. Examples of all four dakini retinue figures can be found in an early thirteenth-century painting of Chakrasamvara from the Thomas and Margot Pritzker Collection, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 58321 – the figures in red, yellow, blue and green at either side of Chakrasamvara’s head and feet. A closely related example in gilt-bronze, also dated to the seventeenth century, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 16 March 2016, lot 721, for US$274,000, and is illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 13062.
The present figure is distinguished by the presence of an inscription in Tibetan, “Tashi Lima,” at the back of the base, which translated essentially means, “a gilt-bronze figure made at Tashilhunpo monastery.” As the seat of the Panchen Lamas, who were recognized as the revealers and tutors of the Dalai Lamas and thus one of the two most important lineages in Gelugpa Buddhism, Tashilhunpo was a site of enormous political power and artistic fervor. Tashilhunpo was renowned for its production of paintings following woodblock print models, but was also an important site for the production of gilt-bronze imagery, and the monastery perhaps reached its apogee in the seventeenth century. The present work is a rare and important example of the mastery of the material that was produced at this important seat at the height of its power.
Standing in the powerful alidhasana stance on a double-lotus base with thickly beaded rims, the dakini holds a curved knife and skull cup in her primary hands, and a damaru (drum) in her upper proper right hand; her upper proper left hand would have at one time held a khatvanga staff. She is naked except for her ornate beaded jewelry, including a skirt from which hangs a ghanta (bell) on a chain, and is further adorned with a garland of skulls. The face is sensuously modeled, with full lips, hooked nose, and wide eyes below the arched brows, with the forehead centered by the third eye and surmounted by an elaborate skull crown.
In form and iconography, the figure closely follows other known depictions of the four dakini figures from the Chakrasamvara mandala. Although the four figures are named - Khandaroha, Lama, Rupini, and Dakini – they are only distinguished by the color of the skin, which is not indicated in the gilt-bronze medium. Examples of all four dakini retinue figures can be found in an early thirteenth-century painting of Chakrasamvara from the Thomas and Margot Pritzker Collection, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 58321 – the figures in red, yellow, blue and green at either side of Chakrasamvara’s head and feet. A closely related example in gilt-bronze, also dated to the seventeenth century, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 16 March 2016, lot 721, for US$274,000, and is illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 13062.
The present figure is distinguished by the presence of an inscription in Tibetan, “Tashi Lima,” at the back of the base, which translated essentially means, “a gilt-bronze figure made at Tashilhunpo monastery.” As the seat of the Panchen Lamas, who were recognized as the revealers and tutors of the Dalai Lamas and thus one of the two most important lineages in Gelugpa Buddhism, Tashilhunpo was a site of enormous political power and artistic fervor. Tashilhunpo was renowned for its production of paintings following woodblock print models, but was also an important site for the production of gilt-bronze imagery, and the monastery perhaps reached its apogee in the seventeenth century. The present work is a rare and important example of the mastery of the material that was produced at this important seat at the height of its power.