Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
Lot 1034
A WOOL TANTRIC RUG OF A FEMALE FIGURE TIBET, CIRCA 19TH CENTURY
2 December 2021, 19:00 HKT
Hong Kong, Six Pacific PlaceSold for HK$66,300 inc. premium
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Mark Rasmussen
International Director
A WOOL TANTRIC RUG OF A FEMALE FIGURE
TIBET, CIRCA 19TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.4513
154 x 91 cm (60 5/8 x 35 7/8 in.)
Himalayan Art Resources item no.4513
154 x 91 cm (60 5/8 x 35 7/8 in.)
Footnotes
西藏 約十九世紀 毛料密宗人皮毯
Tantric rugs like the present lot are made for Vajrayana Buddhist practitioners to sit on during rituals associated with the worship of wrathful protectors. They often employ fearsome images, for the purpose of removing obstacles on the path to enlightenment through sacrificial power. This fine example depicts a gruesome female figure with her intestines exposed, lying against a sea of blood and surrounded by a band of severed heads. The compositional elements resemble that of a tantric rug in the Kronos Collections depicting two flayed male figures encircled by a frieze of heads, exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ("Rugs and Ritual in Tibetan Buddhism," October 7, 2010–June 26, 2011). Also see an example with a male figure published in Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet, 2020, p.344, no.457, and several published in Casey, Tantric Carpets of the Himalayas, Rossi & Rossi Ltd., 2008, nos.1, 2 & 4.
Provenance:
Ex-Private Hong Kong Collection, acquired before 2000