This week in La Gazette Drouot: A Chakrasamvara bronze, Tantric aesthetics in 15th-century Tibet

In terms of its general aesthetic, the treatment of the jewels and the main face of the god, this sculpture can be linked to the reform movement in Tibetan aesthetics that emerged in the 1430s. 

This change has been associated by several specialists with Sonam Gyaltsen, whose name appears on two major works : a large Avalokiteshvara created for the Jamchen Choje monastery in Tsang, with a dedication to two leaders of the Rinpung clan, and a Shri Devi for the seventh Tashi Gomang stupa in Densatil, built in 1431-1432. This artistic reform coincided with the political tipping point between the Phagmodrupa dynasty - then in decline - and the Rinpungpa clan, relatives and ministers destined to take an increasingly important place in Tibetan power.
 

This iconographic variant belongs to a family of images documented in sculpture and painting around Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi.The most direct comparison is provided by a 15th century Tibetan Chakrasamvarain private hands, dated 1400-1499 and linked to the Luipa tradition.

Comparison with the Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, confirms that this type is rooted in tantric iconography, where the union of the divine couple is accompanied by a highly codified warrior and ritual apparatus.