Description: Copper bronze, mounted to modern wooden base
Sino-Tibetan, Ming Dynasty
The ferocious deity is striding in alidhasana, his four arms holding attributes including a kapala and kartri on the primary hands, and a sword and shield in his raised hands. He is wearing a tiger skin loin cloth and a garland of decapitated human heads around the neck and waist.
The protector deity Mahakala is a wrathful form of the primordial Vajradhara, the supreme essence of all Buddhas. He can be two-armed, four-armed (as in the present lot) or six-armed. Mahakala's fearsome appearance and the terrifying implements that he holds display his capability to cope with our persistent and unwanted negativities. His most distinctive symbolic attributes are the chopper (kartri) and the skull bowl (kapala) filled with blood, symbolizing the sharp edge of wisdom shredding all materialistic negative attitudes in the human-skull bowl of emptiness that holds the blood of defeated evil and demonic elements.
Shape: Figural shape
Dimensions: 18,5 cm (height of sculpture alone) 14,5 cm (width) 7,5 cm (height including base)
Condition: Very good condition with age-related signs of wear and small nicks. Impressive patina
Provenance: Austrian private collection; bought in the 1990s by Sohel Chawla, New Delhi India for his private museum
Auction result comparison: Bonham’s, FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 26 May 2014, Hong Kong, Admiralty, lot 155 (for a Mahakala copper bronze statue, dating to the same period).
明代大黑天銅像
青銅,木質底座
漢藏,明代
品相良好,包漿完善
奧地利私人收藏