A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF YAMANTAKA VAJRABHAIRAVA AND VAJRAVETALI

MING DYNASTY, MID-15TH CENTURY

MING DYNASTY, MID-15TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.4486
19 1/4 in. (49 cm) high

明 十五世紀中葉 銅鎏金大威德金剛像

This magnificent bronze depicts Yamantaka Vajrabhairava in interpenetrative union with his consort, Vajravetali. Vajrabhairava ("Indestructibly Frightening") is a principal yidam who belongs to a class of deities named Yamantaka ("Destroyer of Death"). Rhie and Thurman call him the "most fierce, most difficult of all archetype buddha deities" (Rhie & Thurman, Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, 1999, p.37). According to Buddhist mythology, Manjushri, the Great Bodhisattva of Wisdom, manifested into this terrifying bull-headed deity to destroy Yama, the Lord of Death. Rhie and Thurman add that Vajrabhairava, "is created in imaginative samadhi in order to navigate the deep, deep spaces of dying and death, in order to accelerate the development of one's compassionate side, the evolutionary element most essential to becoming enlightened. Vajrabhairava embodies full enlightenment adamant in confrontation with the most profound demons of the individual and collective unconscious" (ibid).

This powerful figure is modeled with thirty-four arms outstretched like wings, brandishing ritual weapons and attributes that symbolize Vajrabhairava's power to subdue the five poisons: ignorance, attachment, aversion, pride, and envy. His sixteen legs would have originally trampled a retinue of prostrate animals and Hindu gods, conveying his supremacy over the physical realms of existence. Vajrabhairava's nine superposed heads, representing the nine categories of Buddhist scriptures, are finely delineated. The turn of his primary buffalo head is an ingenious artistic detail unique to early Ming images of the deity that grants an unobscured view of his astonishing features. His exchange with Vajravetali is further designed masterfully with the coiling of his tongue into her mouth.

Many factors have contributed to Vajrabhairava's tremendous popularity in China during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. The practice of Vajrabhairava is important to all major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is one of the four main meditational deities (along with Hevajra, Guhyasamaja and Chakrasamvara) within the Sakya and Kagyu traditions, and one of the three principal meditational deities (joined by Guhyasamaja and Chakrasamvara) of the Gelug school. Sponsorship of Tibetan Buddhism by Chinese courts encouraged the creation of Vajrabhairava images in China, either as gifts to Tibet or for local worship. Moreover, as Chinese emperors were traditionally regarded as earthly manifestations of Manjushri, Vajrabhairava – Manjushri's wrathful form – also symbolized the emperor's authority, and served, to some extent, to enforce the imperial mandate.

Early Ming emperors were known for their generous patronage of Tibetan Buddhism, which reached its zenith during the Yongle reign (1402-24). Numerous gilt bronzes were produced following a distinctive and highly refined Yongle imperial style. While the majority of these were small and easily transportable sculptures either gifted to visiting Tibetan dignitaries or sent to monasteries in Tibet, larger ones were also cast for local worship. Examples of bronze vajrabhairavas from the Yongle period survive in both formats. During the subsequent Xuande reign (1425-35), the production of small-sized bronzes as imperial gifts to Tibet was curtailed, and gradually more emphasis was placed on casting larger sculptures for local temples. The following reigns, namely Zhengtong (1435-49), Jingtai (1449-57), and Chenghua (1464-87), saw a continuation of this trend.

Many stylistic elements of the present work indicate its close relationship to early 15th-century bronzes created during the Yongle and Xuande periods. A monumental gilt bronze Vajrabhairava preserved at the imperial Buddhist temple, Yonghegong ("Palace of Peace and Harmony"), widely accepted as dating to the Yongle or Xuande reigns, is particularly comparable (see Weldon, "A Vajrabhairava Statue in the Yonghe Gong, Beijing", in Orientations, Vol.50, no.1, Jan/Feb 2019, pp.132-7). Both figures are exceptionally stocky in form, with robust legs and arms. Six of the arms are primary and centrally positioned, differentiated from the remaining twenty-eight arms, which are much slimmer and separately cast. Their sixteen legs are arranged in similar fashion, with some extended in pratyalidhasana, and the rest bent at the knee, visible right beneath his torso. This particular leg arrangement appeared as early as the Yuan dynasty (see an early-14th century silk Vajrabhairava mandala preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992.54), and dominated Vajrabhairava images of the Yongle period. Many jewelry elements are also common to these two bronzes, such as the distinct bracelets, each consisting of a snake and a jeweled leaf, and the tripartite chains hanging by the figures' legs. All of the aforementioned stylistic components are also consistent with smaller examples bearing Yongle reign marks, including a gilt bronze Vajrabhairava formerly in the Speelman collection (HAR 12442) and the central figure within a Vajrabhairava lotus mandala preserved in the Tibet Museum, Lhasa (HAR 101507).

On the other hand, certain details of the current bronze vary from the Yongle-Xuande formula. For instance, the snakes coiling at the top of Vajrabhairava's chignon, as seen in the Yonghegong figure and most other Yongle-marked bronzes, are absent in the present work. The crown formation is also different, with the chakra appearing only in the central finial and not any of the side finials, and the beaded chains that usually hang across his forehead are absent. While these variations do not rule out the possibility that the bronze could originate from the Yongle or Xuande period, they might indicate a slightly later dating.

Meanwhile, a Chenghua-marked gilt bronze of Vajrabhairava, formerly in the Gumpel Collection and recently on the market (Nagel Auction, Stuttgart, 23 June 2021, lot 8), is useful for end-dating an attribution for the present work. The figure has a small torso and slender limbs, deviating significantly from the stocky form favored during the Yongle and Xuande periods. In comparison, the present work is much closer to the early-15th century style and therefore predates the Chenghua bronze, which is dated by inscription to 1473.

Also see two other large-scale, 15th-century gilt bronze figures of Vajrabhairava, both formerly in the Gumpel Collection and originally sold at Hotel Drouot, Paris, in 1904; one was later sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3234, and the other was published in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p.532, no.149E.

Published:
National Palace Museum, Jin tong fo zao xiang te zhan tulu [The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom: Special Exhibition Catalog of Buddhist Bronzes from the Nitta Group Collection at the National Palace Museum], Taipei, 1987, no.30.
Zangchuan fojiao jintong foxiang tudian [Encyclopedia of Sino-Tibetan Gilt-Bronze Buddhist Figures], Beijing, 1996, pl.285.

Exhibited:
The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom: Special Exhibition of Buddhist Bronzes from the Nitta Group Collection, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987.

Provenance:
The Nitta Group Collection, Japan
Private East Asian Collection
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 3 October 2017, lot 3128