A FINE AND EARLY BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAVARAHI Tibet, 12th/ 13th ct. H. 17 cm (o.S.) Standing in dancing posture with her left foot trampling a reclining figure placed on a shaped pedestal, her right knee supported by a lotus rising from the base, her raised right hand brandishing the karttrika while the left is supporting a kapala, a trishula placed against her left shoulder, naked apart from a garland decorated with severed heads and jewellery, her cold-gilded face displaying a severe expression with protruding eyes below arched eyebrows, raised third eye at the forehead, open mouth showing fangs, a boar-head issued by the right side of her head, her hair combed in a chignon secured with a simple tiara decorated with five skulls. Mounted on a stand. North German private collection, assembled since the 1970s until 2006 - Vajravarahi derives from the boar-headed Hindu goddess Varahi, the female aspect of Vishnu’s boar avatar, Varaha. She reflects the incorporation of Hindu imagery into Vajrayana Buddhism. Here, the face of a sow projects from her head. Wearing a garland of severed heads, she dances on a corpse, wielding a chopper with a vajra (thunderbolt) finial, evoking the cutting away of illusions. Compare a similar bronze of Vajravarahi preserved in the Metroplitan Museum of Art, gifted by the Zimmerman Family Collection 2014, Accession Number: 2014.720.2 Minor repair to plinth, minor wear, traces of age