Beschreibung:

A SILVER INLAID BRASS AND COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF CHAKRASAMVARA QIANLONG PERIOD (1735-1796) With separately cast silver implements in the hands, elephant skin on the back, and garlands of skulls and severed heads below the waist. Himalayan Art Resources item no.16701 42 cm (16 1/2 in.) high Fußnoten A devout follower, the Qianlong emperor enthusiastically patronized Tibetan Buddhism, erecting numerous temples throughout the empire and producing vast sculptures to inhabit them. The imperial workshop under his reign employed master sculptors from China, Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia, personally supervised by the emperor to ensure quality. Cast with the delicate precision and technical virtuosity of an imperial Qianlong bronze, this captivating silver inland figure of the great meditational deity (yidam) Chakrasamvara with his consort Vajravarahi is a representative tour de force. Despite the absence of an inscription, this outstanding sculpture shares many stylistic details with several Qianlong-marked bronzes by the imperial atelier. A remarkable figure of Kurukulla in the Palace Museum, for example, has the same slender yet sensuous physiognomy and delicate hands with supple long fingers (Luo, Iconography and Styles: Tibetan Statues in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2002, pp.396-7, no.176). Both deities have similar crisply modeled faces with a wrinkle at the bridge of the nose to pronounce their furrowed brows. Chakrasamvara's piercing gaze is particularly inspired. Like the imperially-marked Kurukulla, this Chakrasamvara wears sophisticated, separately cast garlands and beaded chains, and his tall chignon is a similarly homage to the Pala style of medieval Northeastern India which underwent a revival during the Qianlong reign. Though arguably less refined, a Mahachakra Vajrapani is another example of a Qianlong-marked bronze exhibiting this imperial standard of confident modelling and precise casting (Luo, Tibetan Buddhist Sculptures, Beijing, 2009, no.51). It shares the brown even patina lasting on the present bronze, which is common among Pala revival works from the Qianlong period. And, its creator has gone to similar lengths to seemingly engrave every strand of the deities' astonishing hair. The present sculpture is also closely related to a group of monumental tantric deities in the Palace Museum, Beijing (ibid., pp.98, 102, 104-5 & 260, nos.41, 45, 47 & 161; Luo, op. cit., pp.430-1, no.192). Bronzes in this group, though uninscribed, are generally attributed by leading Chinese scholars to the imperial workshop in Beijing. These deities all wear skillfully rendered bone ornaments similarly designed with small plaques connecting beaded chains around their wrists, upper arms, ankles, and waists. The ornaments of some figures are also enhanced with silver inlay. Furthermore, their garlands of severed heads are distinctly constructed with substantial spacing between each head. Moreover, they wear almost identical hooped earrings to the present bronze, and skull crowns with looped chains on the forehead. Other related examples are published in Buddhist Statues in Yonghegong, Beijing, 2002, p.19, no. 19; and Rist & Grewenig, Buddha: 2000 years of Buddhist Art. 232 Masterpieces, Völklinger, 2016, p.488-9, no.217. This sculpture of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi in ecstatic embrace expresses one of the most important transcendental ideals in Tantric Buddhist art – the supreme bliss of enlightenment attained through the perfect union of Wisdom (Vajravarahi) and Compassion (Chakrasamvara). Here Chakrasamvara's hair is arranged in, "the coif of a yogi", and is decorated with a crescent moon, which, according to Rhie and Thurman, serves as a reminder that "he was first worshiped by the wandering ascetics of medieval India, and that although he is a thoroughly Buddhist deity, he shares some attributes with Shiva, the Hindu god of yogis." (Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1991, p.278) Provenance Private Swiss Collection, acquired in Geneva i