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Lot 13
AN IMPORTANT GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF TAKKIRAJA
Estimated Value:
40.000 € - 60.000 €
Schätzpreis:
50.000 €
Description:
Central-Tibet, 15th c.H. 27,2 cm
Standing with his sturdy legs in pratyalidhasana on a lotus-base, both hands in front of him grasping the elephant-hook or ankusha topped with a half-vajra, wearing tiger-skirt draped around his hip knotted to the front, scarf floating around his shoulders and head, its streamers encircling his arms while the finials fall along his legs, jewellery lavishly set with semi-precious stones, his face displaying a wrathful expression with bulging eyes below raised eyebrows, vertical eye at his forehead, broad nose, open mouth showing a double row of teeth, painted facial details, his elongated earlobes ornamented with each a floral medallion, his hairdo combed in a low chignon secured with a five-leaf tiara decorated with a pair of pattras and floating ribbons, the reverse with a rectangular cast plaque to cover the ritual inserts, unsealed.
Important Austrian private collection, bought 1993 at the Art Fair Vienna, from Gallery Asboth, Vienna
Published and illustrated in the Art fair catalogue Vienna Hofburg 1993, pp. 78-79
Takkiraja or the King of Desire is one of the dharmapalas or protectors of the Buddhist Law. There are many dharmapalas in Tibetan Buddhism and each school has its own guardian. Takkiraja is especially popular amongst followers of the Saskyapa school. Here he is considered as one of the Ten Great Wrathful Deities guarding the directions on the outside of the Guhyasamaja mandala. As well his name is discussed in the Guhyasamaja cycle of Tantras itself. As bronze figure he is here represented solitary, though originally perhaps part of another iconographic set of three known as Three Great Red Deities. Both others are Kurukulla and Ganapati.
Depicted wrathful, he is supposed to defend and guard Buddhist followers from dangers and enemies. He holds an iron hook ending in the curved prongs of a half-vajra. This reminds one that these attributes were used in support of its Buddhist goals. This attribute helps Takkiraja to overpower the forces that keep us in the cycle of worldly existence and pulls all beings towards spiritual liberation, the main goal of the Buddhist teachings.
This fine and extremely rare iconographic subject is most likely cast in Central Tibet or perhaps even in the southern central regions of the country. Takkiraja’s superbly executed and beautiful proportioned figural form is well-known from fifteenth century sculptures influenced by the Newari art tradition. It is not to be excluded that Newari artists were even active in the atelier where the bronze was created. The body appears to be executed rather encumbered with lavish ornaments and fine treatment of the textiles, all adding to an animated composition
Very minor traces of age
