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Lot Essay
Vajrasattva, whose name translates as 'Adamantine Being', is also known as the Buddha of Purification, and is one of the most important deities in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon. Vajrasattva's attributes, the vajra and ghanta, symbolising compassion and wisdom, but also the male and female aspects, are held at the chest and waist, and corresponding to tantric method, the deity is shown holding the vajra in the right hand, and the ghanta in the left.
During the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries, the authority of Mongol rulers had become closely associated with Tibetan Buddhist or Lamaist rituals. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Buddhist fervour of the Ming court encouraged a cultural exchange between Tibet and China through Imperial patronage. Bronze sculptures in the Tibeto-Chinese style were produced during the reigns of Emperor Yongle (1403-1424) and Emperor Xuande (1426-1435), and are highly distinguished for their unsurpassed craftsmanship, overall refinement and gracefulness. Both Emperors bestowed generous patronage to Buddhist monasteries and artistic ateliers, fostering the production of artworks depicting Tibetan Buddhist deities and imagery in a highly refined style, executed with the highest level of technical mastery. Gilt bronzes were commissioned from the Imperial workshops in Beijing for personal religious practices and as gifts for the many Tibetan emissaries invited to the court.
Relatively fewer examples bearing the reign mark of the following period, Xuande, exist and the present example is stylistically very closely related to its Yongle predecessors. The present figure would have been made at the Imperial ateliers in Beijing, most probably during the early phase of the period by the same craftsmen who continued their work from the Yongle period. The present figure appears to be one of the largest Xuande-marked figures of Vajrasattva recorded. Compare with two smaller Xuande-marked figures of Vajrasattva, one (24.2 cm. high) sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2000, lot 96, the other (17.7 cm.) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 May 2010, lot 1960.
For Yongle-marked figures of Vajrasattva, see an example (18.4 cm.) from the Speelman collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 801, another (17.7 cm.) sold at Christie's New York, 17 September 2008, lot 587, and one (18 cm.) in the Berti Aschmann Collection, illustrated by H. Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, Museum Reitberg Zurich, 1995, no. 22. Compare also to a Yongle-marked gilt-bronze figure of Vajradhara from the same collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2022, lot 2885.
During the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries, the authority of Mongol rulers had become closely associated with Tibetan Buddhist or Lamaist rituals. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Buddhist fervour of the Ming court encouraged a cultural exchange between Tibet and China through Imperial patronage. Bronze sculptures in the Tibeto-Chinese style were produced during the reigns of Emperor Yongle (1403-1424) and Emperor Xuande (1426-1435), and are highly distinguished for their unsurpassed craftsmanship, overall refinement and gracefulness. Both Emperors bestowed generous patronage to Buddhist monasteries and artistic ateliers, fostering the production of artworks depicting Tibetan Buddhist deities and imagery in a highly refined style, executed with the highest level of technical mastery. Gilt bronzes were commissioned from the Imperial workshops in Beijing for personal religious practices and as gifts for the many Tibetan emissaries invited to the court.
Relatively fewer examples bearing the reign mark of the following period, Xuande, exist and the present example is stylistically very closely related to its Yongle predecessors. The present figure would have been made at the Imperial ateliers in Beijing, most probably during the early phase of the period by the same craftsmen who continued their work from the Yongle period. The present figure appears to be one of the largest Xuande-marked figures of Vajrasattva recorded. Compare with two smaller Xuande-marked figures of Vajrasattva, one (24.2 cm. high) sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2000, lot 96, the other (17.7 cm.) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 May 2010, lot 1960.
For Yongle-marked figures of Vajrasattva, see an example (18.4 cm.) from the Speelman collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 801, another (17.7 cm.) sold at Christie's New York, 17 September 2008, lot 587, and one (18 cm.) in the Berti Aschmann Collection, illustrated by H. Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, Museum Reitberg Zurich, 1995, no. 22. Compare also to a Yongle-marked gilt-bronze figure of Vajradhara from the same collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2022, lot 2885.