STATUE DE VAJRASATTVA EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE TIBET OCCIDENTAL, XIII/XIVE SIÈCLESTATUE DE VAJRASATTVA EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRETIBET OCCIDENTAL, XIII/XIVE SIÈCLEHimalayan Art Resources item no. 4860 23.2 cm (9 1/8 in.) high A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRASATTVA WEST TIBET, 13TH/14TH CENTURY 藏西 十三/十四世紀 金剛薩埵銅像Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sThe bronze depicts Vajrasattva with his most popular iconography, seated while holding a vajra before his chest and a bell by his left hip. As the Primordial Buddha, Vajrasattva represents the essence of the Buddhahood and is frequently invoked for a rite of purification before undertaking most Tibetan Buddhist tantric instruction. The broad, flat shape of the lotus petals around the base, and the way in which the scarf framing the figure is cast with supporting rods, indicates this image was cast in West Tibet within the 13th or 14th century. For comparison, see a Ratnasambhava in the Zimmerman Collection, published in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 180, no. 34A, and a standing Avalokiteshvara with similarly prominent fanning crown ribbons behind the temples in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2003.339).