A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE DEPICTING A DAKINI Tibet, 16th/17th Century

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13062.

Sotheby's New York, 30th November 1994, lot 66.

Wear to gilding and accretion overall. With scattered scratches to face, hands and kapala. Loss to attribute in secondary proper left arm. With minor areas of verdigris. Slight bending to crown elements.
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This magnificently cast bronze depicts one of the four retinue dakinis from the inner mandala of Chakrasamvara, identifiable by the lotus and kapala attribute attached to the base at lower right. 

The dakini stands in alidhasana on a double lotus throne, wearing a five-pointed tiara adorned with skulls, elaborate jewels and bone ornaments, and a garland of skulls around her neck. An elegant lotus is placed at the crown of head behind the tiara, and a pearl and foliate clasp secures the tiara at back atop her flowing hair, which falls gracefully across her lower back. She holds a kapala in her primary left hand, and the secondary left hand is raised and likely would have held a khatvanga. She holds a kartrika in the primary right hand, and a damaru in the raised secondary hand.  

This sculpture would have been part of a larger set with Chakrasamvara and his consort Vajravarahi at the center, and four dakinis in a circle around the central deities. The four goddesses—red Khandaroha, yellow Rupini, green Lama and blue Dakini—have the same iconographic presentation and are only distinguished from each other by color. This assembly of deities and dakinis are from the Thirteen Deity Samvarodaya Chakrasamvara Mandala as described in the Shri Maha Sambarodaya Tantraraja; for an example of the complete mandala, refer to a 16th Century thangka depicting the same, see Mandala: The Perfect Circle, New York, 2010, p. 124, pl. 24. Compare the four dakinis in the lotus petals surrounding the central figures, and also the lotus and kapala motif in the auxilliary four petals between each dakini with the current work. 

The style of the base suggests a strong Newari influence and supports the 16th/17th Century attribution; compare the upper and lower pearl motif, double-petaled lotus rows and lower base tier to a contemporaneous Nepalese bronze depicting Chakrasamvara, see Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3rd December 2015, lot 299.