佛像网

尺寸：H. 9 in. (22.9 cm); H. inc. base 10 1/4 in. (26 cm); W. 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm)
年代：6-7世纪
质地：石雕(Gray chorite)
风格：印度 克什米尔
来源：纽约大都会博物馆
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：
This powerful figurine is best understood as the Mahayana bodhisattva Vajrapani, who appropriated the lighting-bolt scepter (Skt: vajra) of Indra, the Vedic storm god, and repurposed it. Its meaning shifted from that being associated with the life-affirming power of storms (e.g. the monsoons), to the Buddhist savior Vajrapani, who facilitates journeying the path of enlightenment and aiding crystal clear thought as penetrating as a lighting strike.

In this, among the earliest representations known from the greater Kashmir world, the double-ended thunderbolt symbol is imposingly large, the shaft of which extends the length of Vajrapani’s figure. In addition to the massive device with its distinctive prongs, the bodhisattva holds a rosary (aksamala). His face is somewhat abraded but traces of a moustache remain, and he wears a distinctive headdress of an elaborate cockade with hanging strings of pearls disgorging from the center, in the Gupta-manner. Large annular earplugs, also of known Gupta type, are shown frontally. He wears a sacred cord (yanopavita) and short waist cloth with a sheathed dagger secured in the belt. In his raised proper left hand he holds the oversized vajra, and his head is framed by a large unadorned circular halo.

来源:
[Spink & Son Ltd., London , by 1981, sold to the Weills]; Marie-Hélène and Guy A. Weill , New York (1981 until Marie-Helene Weill d., 2015; sold at Christie's auction to MMA); [ Christie's, New York , auction, March 15, 2016, lot 279, sold to MMA]

著录:
Siudmak, John. The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and its Influences. Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section Two, South Asia, vol. 28, Boston: Brill, 2013, pl. 32.

Guy, John. “Saviours and Protectors in Esoteric Buddhism: The Irving Gifts.” Arts of Asia 45, no. 6 (November–December 2015). pp. 116–27, fig. 4.