A LARGE AND IMPRESSIVE TIBETO-CHINESE GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF MAHACHAKRA VAJRAPANI WITH CONSORT

MING DYNASTY

The six-armed Vajrapani wearing a tiger skin dhoti and with three ferocious heads stands embracing his consort Mamaki. He holds a vajra in his upper hand and another hand is raised with an extended finger, both figures have cold-painted pigments to the hair and the headdresses are adorned with crowns of skulls. Both wear elaborate jewellery with snakes and jewelled armbands and anklets. Both figures are trampling Brahma and Shiva beneath their feet, and are raised on a powerfully cast double lotus base, 42cm. (2)

Cf. the Gumpel Collection, Linden Museum Stuttgart for a related figure without his consort and the American Museum of Natural History for a smaller example from the W.B. Whitney Collection, no.W.232.

Provenance: from the collection of John Newall Esq.