| 中文版 English

具体要求

其它要求

-
关闭
A BRONZE CEREMONIAL SHIELD DEPICTING VIRABHADRA, SOUTH INDIA, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
奥地利
09月10日 下午5点 开拍 / 09月08日 下午3点 截止委托
拍品描述

Description

A BRONZE CEREMONIAL SHIELD DEPICTING VIRABHADRA, SOUTH INDIA, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
This lot is a museum deaccession and is therefore offered without reserve

The four-armed deity standing in a dynamic pose within a cloud-form niche centered by a kirtimukha mask, richly adorned with jewelry, holding a sword, bow, and arrow in his hands. His ornate crown flanked by the sun and crescent moon, a diminutive figure of Daksha and Sati in the lower left and right corner, all in high relief. Mounted on a copper plate which bears a massive handle on the reverse.

Provenance: The Kienzle Family Collection, Stuttgart, Germany. Acquired between 1950 and 1985 by siblings Else (1912-2006), Reinhold (1917-2008), and Dr. Horst Kienzle (1924-2019), during their extensive travels in Asia. Subsequently inherited by Dr. Horst Kienzle and bequeathed to the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Radevormwald, Germany. Released through museum deaccession in 2024. The Kienzle siblings were avid travelers and passionate collectors of Asian and Islamic art. During their travels, the Kienzle’s sought out and explored temples, monasteries, and markets, always trying to find the best pieces wherever they went, investing large sums of money and forging lasting relationships to ensure they could acquire them. Their fervor and success in this pursuit is not only demonstrated by their collection but further recorded in correspondences between Horst Kienzle and several noted dignitaries, businesses and individuals in Nepal and Ladakh. Their collection had gained renown by the 1970s, but the Kienzle’s stopped acquiring new pieces around 1985. Almost thirty years later, the collection was moved to the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Radevormwald, opened by Peter Hardt in 2014. Before his death in 2019, Horst Kienzle bequeathed his entire property to Peter Hardt and legally adopted him as his son, who has been using the name Peter Kienzle-Hardt ever since.
Labels: Inscribed ‘ […] Central Indian. 16th cent.’
Condition: Good condition with old wear, commensurate with age. Small losses, minor dents, and few nicks. The sword lost. Fine, naturally grown patina overall.

Weight: 1,231 g
Dimensions: Height 23.7 cm

Expert’s note: This is an unusual, heavily cast and finely worked piece with some puja (prayer) wear. It most probably adorned a household shrine or a small shrine within a temple.

Virabhadra, an incarnation of Shiva, created after Shiva’s wife Sati, was not invited to a great sacrifice given by her father Daksha. Being greatly humiliated, Sati went to the banquet and threw herself on the sacrificial fire. When Shiva heard of his wife’s death, he tore a hair from his head and threw it to the ground. Virabhadra, a great hero-warrior, arose from this hair. He cut off Daksha’s head in his rage and hurled it into the sacrificial fire. After the other gods calmed Shiva down, Daksha’s head was replaced by that of a ram, and he later became a devotee of Shiva.

The cult of Virabhadra largely followed the spread of the Vijayanagar empire, which covered the Deccan plateau and much of the southern tip of India. This militarized version of Shiva became popular probably in the face of the threat that the Hindu states of the south felt from the incursions of the Islamic sultanates. In this way, Virabhadra the warrior was seen as a protector of Hinduism. The deity’s most popular period was the period of the 16th-19th centuries. The cult largely subsided by the early 20th century.

The handle on the back allows the temple priest to hold the plaque during ceremonies, making it turn clockwise and bringing it near the devotees so that it could touch them as if to absorb the god’s radiating power through physical contact. Many plaques are worn down by centuries of ritual manipulation, for the images of the gods are daily washed, sprinkled with special substances, dressed or covered in flowers.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related altar panel depicting Virabhadra, 17.5 cm high, in the Horniman Museum & Gardens, museum number 19.3.51/2. Compare a closely related copper-brass ceremonial shield with a similar plaque of Virabhadra, dated to the 18th century, in the British Museum, registration number 1853,0108.9.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Koller, Zurich, 14 June 2017, lot 440
Price: CHF 1,500 or approx. EUR 1,700 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A fine copper repoussé plaque of Virabhadra used by Jangam priests. India, Maharashtra, 16th/17th c.
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, subject, modeling, and size (23 cm).

本场其它拍品

  • 竞价阶梯
  • 快递物流
  • 拍卖规则
  • 支付方式
竞价区间 加价幅度
0
10
50
50
600
100
1,600
200
4,000
500
8,000
1,000
16,000
2,000
40,000
5,000
80,000
10,000
160,000
20,000
+

价格信息

拍品估价:1,000 - 2,000 欧元 起拍价格:500 欧元  买家佣金: 35.00%

拍卖公司

Galerie Zacke
地址: Sterngasse 13, 1010 Vienna, Austria
电话: 0043-1-5320452
邮编: 1070
向卖家提问