A Small Gilt Bronze Figure of Mahakala
PROPERTY FROM A CALIFORNIA COLLECTION
A Small Gilt Bronze Figure of Mahakala

TIBETO-CHINESE, YONGLE MARK AND PERIOD (1403-24)

Details
A Small Gilt Bronze Figure of Mahakala
Tibeto-Chinese, Yongle Mark and Period (1403-24)
The protector deity standing on a corpse over a beaded lotus base, holding a kapala and karttrka, wearing windswept sash, an elaborate festooned apron and beaded necklace, a garland of severed heads extending from shoulders to feet and a snake coiled around his abdomen, his face in a wrathful expression with bulging eyes, bared teeth, flaming brows and moustache, his hair arranged in a flaming bun supporting an intricate skull diadem surmounted by a miniature effigy of Buddha, the separately cast base sealed and incised with six character Yongle mark above and visva-vajra underneath
2½ in. (7 cm.) high
Literature
U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes (1981), no. 145D
H. Karmay, Early Sino-Tibetan Art (1975), p. 90, figs. 60a and b. G. Béguin, Dieux et démons de l'Himalâya (1977), cat. no. 65.

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