A TIBETAN GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF MAHAKALA

A TIBETAN GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF MAHAKALA
17TH/18TH CENTURY

Striding in pratyalidhasana, the principal hands holding a kartika and a kapala, the other hands with a skull rosary and adamaru drum, with a tiger skin skirt around his waist, the figure is heavily embellished with jewellery, a garland of severed heads and a necklace of snakes, the wrathful face surmounted by flame-like red hair behind a skull crown, on a modern black plinth, the figure 269g, 8cm, 14.5cm overall. (2)

Provenance: from the collection of Mr Nicholas Squire (1949-2024), Suffolk, England.

Cf. The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto for a related but larger 17th century figure, illustrated in M Rhie and R Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, p.295, pl.111.

The deity Mahakala is a wrathful form of the primordial Vajradhara, the supreme essence of all Buddhas. He can be two-armed, four-armed or six-armed, as in the present lot. The six-armed Mahakala is thought to be especially powerful in his ability to destroy or conquer enemies. In his six-armed form, he is also sometimes considered as a fierce and powerful manifestation of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

十七/十八世紀 銅鎏金大黑天立像
來源: 英國薩福克郡Nicholas Squire先生（1949-2024）收藏。