佛像鉴定鉴赏收藏

尺寸：高41.3cm
年代：14世纪
质地：铜鎏金
风格：西藏 丹萨替寺
来源：拍卖会
成交：487,500美元(2017.03)
参阅：纽约邦瀚斯
鉴赏：
Artemis注:
可以参看非常相似的一尊: 14世纪西藏丹萨替寺风格铜鎏金金刚亥母(佛罗里达大学哈恩艺术博物馆)

A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRAVARAHI
DENSATIL, 14TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.2403
16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm) high
丹薩替 十四世紀 銅鎏金金剛亥母像

The goddess' grace and poise belie the density of this solidly cast masterpiece of Newari production in Tibet. She centers her weight effortlessly on flexed toes pressed into the chest of a prone human below. From its vajra pommel, her staff rises with dangling miniature drum, bell, and silk tassels flailing in the wind. Her diminutive sow's head, which identifies her as the consort of the great transformative deity Chakrasamvara, juts out from behind her tiara at an angle matching the raised ritual knife in her right hand. She is bedecked with bangles characteristic of the Densatil style, formed of stacked beaded chains clasped by a setting of semi-precious stones. Her silk mantle cascades at her sides with thin hems cast with consummate precision – a detail for which the present example excels compared to others sold in recent years. Below her, an ornate lotus rises from leafy stems that extend from an ungilded tang, which would have fixed her to one of Tibet's most glorious monuments.

Few outsiders were able to glimpse Densatil Monastery in all its glory before it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Thankfully, Giuseppe Tucci invited the photographer P.F. Mele on an expedition in 1948, during which he captured its splendor in black and white film. Tucci describes Densatil's famous eight tashi gomang stupas – a type created by the Kagyu order:

“Those chortens [stupas]…were smothered with a wealth of carvings and reliefs that knew no limits. The whole Olympus of Mahayana seemed to have assembled on those monuments. As I cast the light of my torch on the chortens, the several figures sprang into life, glittering with gold, outlined and set off by darker hues and deep shadows…The hard, rugged images [of protector deities], like mail-clad warriors, sharply contrasted with the buoyancy of some female images gamboling festoon-like around the upper part of some of the oldest chortens.”

Densatil was built on the final resting place of the great master Phagmodrupa (1110-70). The sects that subsequently formed around him became among the most powerful in Central Tibet up until the 16th century, conferring their patronage on the monastery of their beloved guru. It was one of his foremost pupils, Jigten Gonpo Richen Pel (1143-1217), who conceived of the prototype for the Densatil stupas, inviting Newari artists to realize his vision of Chakrasamvara's heavenly realm populated by a retinue of 2,800 deities at his own Drigung Monastery.

Mele's photographs show numerous examples of 'gamboling' Vajravarahis almost identical to the present lot (see Czaja & Poser, Golden Visions of Densatil, New York, 2014, pp.158-9 & 164-5, figs.34 & 35). As Chakrasamvara's consort, it is a fitting place for the goddess, worshiped in her own right as a protector of esoteric practices. Dispersed examples are held in museums and private collections, though few appear to match those photographed by Mele so closely. These include examples published in ibid., pp.166-71, nos.42-4, and sold at Christie's, New York, 17 September 2006, lot 1723; Sotheby's, New York, 16 September 1999, lot 46A; and 21 March 2002, lot 78. A further example is on display at the Capital Museum, Beijing.

Provenance
Private Asian Collection