15. STATUETTE DE VAJRAGHANTA EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE DORÉ TIBET, XVE/XVIE SIÈCLE Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4870 24.2 cm (9 1/2 in.) high A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRAGHANTA TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY 西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金綠金剛鈴母像 Published: Arman Neven, Le Tantrisme dans l'art et la Pansee, Bruxelles, 1974, p. 75, no. 372. Exhibited: Le Tantrisme dans l'art et la Pansee, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, March - 10 April 1974. Provenance: With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1978 This youthful female stands in the pose of pratyalidhasana with three eyes holding a ghanta aloft in the right hand with the left hand held in tarjani mudra. Vajraghanta is one of four directional gatekeepers of various mandalas including Vairochana and Chakrasamvara. She is green in color and stationed in the North. Here, she belongs to the same set as the main deity Kurukulla from this collection (lot 14), acting as a dakini protector to this semi-wrathful dancing goddess. Several other related sculptures include a Mahamaya (Bonhams, Hong Kong, 2 October 2018, lot 48) and another gatekeeper (Art of Nepal and Tibet, Spink and Sons, London, 1979, p. 52, no. 52), both which share similar treatment in the figures and lotus platform. For another figure of Vajraghanta see Clark Two Lamaistic Pantheons, 1937, p. 286.