A MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL PAINTED COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRABHAIRAVA PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

powerfully cast as the wrathful manifestation of Manjusri with faces glaring in all directions and a three-eyed buffalo head facing forward with the enraged face of Manjusri emanating from flaming hair, the multiple faces vividly painted in gold, red and blue, the large and corpulent deity depicted lunging to his right with his sixteen feet in pratyalidha, holding a kartrika and now missing kapala in his principle hands and with thirty-two radial arms grasping ritual implements and tantric weapons, draped in a flayed elephant skin down his back with festoons of dharmapala jewellery and suspended severed heads 

Galerie Koller Zürich, 1984. 
A private European collection.
Sotheby's New York, 18th March 2009, lot 26.

The figure has been preserved in overall good condition. Although the base is now no longer with the figure, and several of the separately cast attributes are also no longer present, the original pigments are intact, and the surface of the metal is in good condition, with just minor oxidisation.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This complex and powerfully modelled sculpture depicts the wrathful manifestation of Manjusri, the Lord of Wisdom. Vajrabhairava, Adamantine Anger, the destroyer of ignorance and fear of death, one of the principal Yidams of the Gelugpa sect, the Tibetan Buddhist order that was favoured at the Qing court.

A similar copper statue of Vajrabhairava in the Palace Museum, Beijing, reflecting the Qing court taste for images made in homage to the Indian statues of the Pala period, is illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City. Tibetan Buddhist Sculptures, Beijing, 2009, p. 98, pl. 41 (fig. 1), where it is described as being a product of the Imperial Workshops in Beijing. It shares the same broad features of the ferocious head above in the flaming hair, and the pendants of the bone jewellery on the belly and legs.

Indian images were held in such high regard - as tangible links to the motherland of Buddhism - that they were avidly collected by the court, and their style respectfully recreated. The vast majority of Pala bronzes are simple un-gilded sculptures relying on line and form for expression. Hence the Vajrabhairava is left un-gilded in homage to the Indian taste, rather against the overall trend of the eighteenth century towards gilt bronzes. Many of the temples in the Forbidden City, Beijing, house un-gilded statues in the Pala revival style such as the present Vajrabhairava, including The Hall of Buddhism and The Pavilion of Raining Flowers, see ibid, pp. 136-7, pp. 146-7, p. 150. In all cases the sculptures are copper with just the heads painted in iconographic colors. A number of large-scale un-gilded copper statues in the style of the present example are also housed in the Qing dynasty Summer Palace, Rehol, including a similar Vajrabhairava, a six-armed Mahakala and a Mahakala with prajna, see eds. Hung Shih Chang and Jessica P.P. Hsu, Buddhist Art from Rehol: Tibetan Buddhist images and ritual objects from the Qing dynasty Summer Palace at Chengde, Taipei, 1999, p. 107, fig. 35 and p. 112, fig. 40.