TIBET, 15TH CENTURY

The present work is distinguished by its extremely fine casting despite its small size. Although it is possible it was made for a small, personal shrine, it favorably compares in size and casting technique to images of Kapaladhara Hevajra that form the central image of a bronze lotus mandala, with lotus petals articulated to open and close. Such mandalas were first created in Northeastern India during the Pala period in the twelfth century, but which continued to be cast in Tibet and China into the fifteenth century. Compare, for example, with an ungilt bronze lotus mandala with Kapaladhara Hevajra at its center in the collection of the Qing Palace Collection in Beijing, illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Beijing, 1998, pp. 148-149, cat. no. 67. See, also, a gilt-bronze example created in the imperial workshops of the Yongle period with Vajrabhairava at its center, illustrated in Treasures from Snow Mountains: Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai, 2001, pp. 84-89, cat. no. 22. An early, ungilt lotus mandala of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi was sold at Christie's New York, 14 September 2010, lot 61.