A large gilt-copper alloy figure of Vajrapani, Tibet, 13th century

Belgian Private Collection, acquired in the 1980s.

The bodhisattva Vajrapani is depicted in his wrathful aspect as guardian of Vajrayana Buddhism, holding the vajra in his right hand, and making a threatening gesture (tarjani mudra) with the left. A tiger skin is tied at his waist, and another is worn as a cape with its head appearing at his right side and its claws around his neck. As protector of the nagas he wears serpents as bracelets, armbands and anklets, one around the neck with its tail and head entwined at the back, and one as a sacred thread (upavita) across his torso and around his belly. He stands in a militant posture (pratyalidha) trampling naga on the lotus pedestal. Traces of gold paint remain on the face and neck, and the hair and beard are painted orange according to Tibetan ritual practice. The back of the lotus was not gilded and is painted red according to Nepalese custom. A diminutive effigy of Akshobya Buddha appears in the hair above.

Compare the robust modeling, the crown with a squat gem-set central element and stems either side, and the jewelry inset with colored and translucent gems, in a thirteenth century gilt-copper Hayagriva in Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 425, pl. 110E, and compare the lotus petals of the base of a thirteenth century Tibetan gilt bronze Vajrasattva in a Bhutanese monastery, see Terese Tse Bartholomew and John Johnston, The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, Honolulu, 2008, cat. no. 13. The lower rim of the base of the Vajrapani is painted red, like the Bhutan Vajrasattva and a thirteenth century Buddha in this style group, see Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman, From the Land of Snows: Buddhist Art of Tibet, 1984, cat. no. 81.

The distinctive muscular yet restrained modeling of the Vajrapani predates the Nepalo-Tibetan styles that appear around the fourteenth century at sites such as Densatil, and belongs to a small group of finely cast and gilded Tibetan works dating to the thirteenth century.