A bronze figure of a female retinue figure Indonesia, Eastern Javanese period, Ngandjuk, 975-1050 3 5/16 in. (8.4 cm.) high Provenance: With J. Polak, Amsterdam, by 1973. The estate of Professor John W. Wilkins.
Esoteric Mahayana Buddhism was well grounded in the Indonesian archipelago by the seventh century, largely due to the influence of maritime trade. By the late tenth century eastern Java was an important center of patronage. The present bronze almost certainly comes from the most well-known hoard of Javanese sculptures, found in 1913 in the village of Chandirejo, in Nganjuk district in Eastern Java (see Lerner and Kossak, The Jewel in the Lotus, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, p. 200). Many of the ninety-or-so sculptures ended up in museum collections, but some were immediately sold to private collectors and the present fell in that category. Each example is cast with identical crowns, curled tendrils of hair atop their shoulders, ornamented necklaces, multiple armbands, waistbands, and double-lotus bases with a narrower bottom lip. Their crowns are distinct: conical and multi-tiered with triangular petals surrounding them and a ballike detail at the center. Many of these figures, including those at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. nos. 1987.142.5; 1987.142.5.7; 1987.142.8; and 1987.142.5.9), have been identified as figures of the early Vajrayana practice of the Vajradhatu or ‘Diamond Realm’ mandala. In the context of the Vajradhatu Mandala, the present figure’s iconography matches that of the offering goddess of amorous dance, Vajralasya, who resides in the southeast corner of the immediate retinue, between Ratnasambhava and Akshobhya (see S. Kossak and J. Singer, Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet, New York, 1999, cat. no. 45). As such, the present figure is a rare and important example of this deity.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art comparable Four deities from a Vajradhatu (Diamond World) Mandala Indonesia (Java, Nganjuk), Eastern Javanese period, last quarter of the 10th–first half of the 11th century Bronze Each approx. 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm) Samuel Eilenberg Collection; Gift of Samuel Eilenberg, 1987. 1987.142.5, .7–.9
Photograph by J. Polak, 1970s.
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