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Premium Lot - Online Bidding Will Not Be Available A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRAHUMKARA NEPAL, 9TH/10TH CENTURY With a Tibetan inscription on the tang below the proper left foot, "'ba tsi ra hung ka ra", representing a transliteration of the Sanskrit Vajrahumkara. Himalayan Art Resources item no.68445 31 cm (12 1/4 in.) high Fußnoten Publised David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pp.86-7, pl.10. Pratapaditya Pal, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Chicago, 2003, p.173, cat.113. Franco Ricca, Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell'Himalaya, Turin, 2004, p.178, fig.IV.12. Exhibited The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 6 October – 30 December 1999. Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell'Himalaya, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, 18 June – 19 September 2004. Illumination: Photographs by Lynn Davis Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 6 April – 16 July 2007. Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2 March 2012 – 11 February 2013. Provenance The Nyingjei Lam Collection On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996-2005 On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005-2019 This energetic sculpture is a striking example of iconographic ingenuity. The dramatic figure is identified by its inscription as the archaic tantric deity Vajrahumkara. He stands in a dramatic pose (pratyalidha) that signifies the throwing of projectile weapons, as he is certainly about to release the vajra brandished in his top right hand—an enduring symbol of Buddhism's ability to dispel ignorance. With his primary hands, Vajrahumkara appears to conflate the eponymous thunderbolt-sound gesture (vajrahumkara mudra), formed by crossing the wrists, with the warning gesture (tarjani mudra), formed by pointing index figures, in one of the most unique mudras seen in Buddhist art. His wrathful expression is not represented by the traditional grimace, but by one half of his mouth biting his lower lip while the other snarls—yet another unusual feature of this unique sculpture. Heavily cast in a manner that seems to further substantiate the figure's terrific power, this distinctive sculpture is one of the earliest and largest bronzes of Vajrayana Buddhism's rarest deities, absent from most collections. The sculpture is thought to be among the earliest surviving bronzes produced for worship in Tibet. Its heavy, copper-rich casting and skilled sense of movement are hallmarks of Newari craftsmanship commissioned by Tibetan patrons. An ethnic group from the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, Newars are master artisans of unparalleled skill, who were frequently employed for major artistic projects in Tibet from as early as the 7th century. The majority of sculptures forming the distinguished stylistic group this sculpture belongs to are located within monastic repositories in Lhasa. Von Schroeder has published a significant amount, including a closely related figure of Trailokyavijaya (von SchroderBuddhist Sculpture in Tibet, Vol. I, Hong Kong, 2003, p.511, no.166B; also see nos.147A-D, 149A-E, 152A-G; and Vol.II, pp.930-40, nos.216A-221A). Scholars have debated their dating, but more recent evidence suggests a range in date between the 9th and 10th centuries (see lot 805 for further discussion). This powerful Vajrahumkara likely belonged to a sculptural mandala also featuring two other known wrathful deities cast to a similar scale. These are a figure of Manjushri Yamantaka in the Pritzker Collection and another wrathful manifestation of Manjushri, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982.220.13). The three probably represent the best examples of wrathful deities from this early stylistic group. Pal pointed to a possible source for the set being the Manjushri Namansangiti Tantra or and its related teachings. The Namansangiti is a pivotal early text first translated into