Lot 408
408
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
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PROPERTY OF THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, SOLD TO BENEFIT FUTURE ACQUISITIONS
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI

TIBET, 14TH-15TH CENTURY

Details
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
TIBET, 14TH-15TH CENTURY
5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) high
Provenance
Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, New York, before 1968.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, accessioned in 1968 (acc. no. 68.8.34).
Literature
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24665.

Lot Essay

The wrathful or yidam tutelary deity stands in a powerful lunge, or alidhasana. His face is modeled in a fierce expression, with sharp fangs, wide eyes, and fiery orange hair. His right hand brandishes a vajra, the left in tarjanimudra, as his arms are decorated with snake ornaments and his waist a tiger pelt. Vajrapani, originally a peaceful bodhisattva in the Mahayana tradition (see lot 407), has a wrathful manifestation within the Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhist tradition.

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