論尺寸規格，明初所造寶帳大黑天銅鎏金像當以此尊御製珍品為魁。寶帳大黑天乃喜金剛密續忿怒相護法，是藏傳佛教智慧怙主。元代篤信此怖畏形像可安邦護國，尤召請寶帳大黑天神通以佑戰事。寶帳大黑天與喜金剛密續息息相關，且為元代及明初帝皇所用，以證君權正統。因此，寶帳大黑天於明朝新政之初備受倚重，以怖畏姿態示人，雄健威嚴，莫過此尊。
菩提曼拏羅基金會典藏
明宣德 鎏金銅寶帳大黑天立像
《大明宣德年施 》款
Property from the Bodhimanda Foundation
A monumental gilt-bronze figure of Panjarnata Mahakala,
Mark and period of Xuande
overall h. 72.5 cm
Estimate
15,000,000 - 20,000,000 HKD
Lot Sold
40,800,000 HKD
Condition Report
The Mahakala is preserved in exceptionally good condition, and the base plate is intact. There are several minor breaks, including the tips of two of the crowns, as visible in the photos, and the tip of part of the skirt by the left knee, and three tips on the reverse. There is a crack to the left arm, stemming from the original casting process. There are scratches to the gilding on the top of the pedestal. The figure is missing the skullcap and knife.
整體品相極佳。封底完整。見幾處輕微小缺，包括兩處冠飾末梢，如圖錄所見、近左膝一處裙飾末梢及背面三處裙飾末梢。左臂處見一道裂紋，應由原始鑄造過程所引起。底座上方鎏金見些許劃痕。手持法器缺失。
Provenance
Christie's London, 19th June 1973, lot 148.
Christie's London, 13th June 1979, lot 61.
A European private collection.
Gifted to the Bodhimanda Foundation, The Netherlands, 2011.
倫敦佳士得1973年6月19日，編號148
倫敦佳士得1979年6月13日，編號61
歐洲私人收藏
贈予菩提曼拏羅基金會，荷蘭，2011年
Literature
Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pl. 149b.
Erik Bruijn, Tibet-China & Japan, Wereldmuseum, Brussels and Rotterdam, 2011, cover and pp. 40-41.
Michael Henss, ‘Sacred Spaces and Secret Visions: Tibetan Buddhist Art from the Bodhimanda Foundation’, Orientations, January/February 2012, pp. 68-69.
烏爾里希．馮．施羅德，《印度與西藏的銅造像》，香港，1981年，頁149，圖版149b
Erik Bruijn，《Tibet-China & Japan》，世界博物館，布魯塞爾及鹿特丹，2011年，頁40-41
Michael Henss，〈Sacred Spaces and Secret Visions: Tibetan Buddhist Art from the Bodhimanda Foundation〉，《美成在久》，2012年1/2月，頁68-69
Exhibited
Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, 2011-2020.
世界博物館，鹿特丹，2011-2020年
此尊寶帳大黑天怖畏端嚴，張口露齒，怒目圓瞪，髯須捲曲，眉若熛焰，眉心開三眼。髮帶、頸鍊、耳飾、臂釧、手鐲及踝鐲皆作盤蛇形象，長纓斜挎左肩結於鼓腹，亦作蛇形。頭戴骷髏冠，腰纏虎皮套垂鈴骨圍裙，有飄帶及人頭花環繞肩。雙手托抬，原一手捧嘎巴拉盌、一手持金剛鉞刀，現均失佚；屈腿而立，腳踏仰臥一人。蓮台單獨鑄造，正面上方鐫有《大明宣德年施》六字年款，座底帶封，封板以銅造，塗覆紅料，正中刻十字金剛杵。
論尺寸規格，明初所造寶帳大黑天銅鎏金像當以此尊御製珍品為魁。可比一明代例，51.6公分，新田集藏，現存台北故宮，載《金銅佛造像特展圖錄》，故宮博物院，台北，1987年，編號32（圖一）。有永樂寶帳大黑天小像若干，如拉薩布達拉宮藏像，載於烏爾里希．馮．施羅德，《西藏佛教雕塑》，卷2，香港，2001年，圖版348A（圖二），及一北京清宮舊藏鐵鋄金像，載楊新等，《清宮藏傳佛教文物》，香港，1992年，圖版75-1、75-2。永樂一朝，此類小型造像多賜予西藏高僧或佛寺，而此尊尺寸宏偉，應為漢地佛寺定造，或奉於京城天子腳下。宣德帝一改永樂厚賞西藏之風，多修藏傳造像供於漢地。
縱覽公共及私人收藏，有以下明初銅鎏金大像可與此尊寶帳大黑天作比：大成就者毘魯巴，79公分，藏維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館，展於《明：盛世皇朝五十年》，大英博物館，倫敦，2014年，編號204（圖三）；宣德年款優塡王佛，64公分，藏賽努奇博物館，出處同前，圖版175；永樂年款菩薩，136公分，原奉青海瞿曇寺，現藏賽努奇博物館，錄杜凱鶴，《Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism》，魯賓藝術博物館，2019年，編號1.17；四臂大黑天，57.8公分，售於紐約蘇富比1998年3月26日，編號161（圖四）；及菩提曼拏羅基金會珍藏喜金剛，同場呈獻（拍品編號3816）。另比七尊，Gumpel 家族舊藏，1904年在德魯奧大樓拍出：其一，擁妃大威德金剛，後售於紐約蘇富比1999年3月25日，編號122（圖五）；其二，獨雄大威德金剛，後售於香港佳士得2016年11月30日，編號3234；其三，擁妃大威德金剛，後售於德國納高2021年6月23日，編號8；其四、其五，六臂大黑天、密集金剛，錄烏爾里希．馮．施羅德，《印度與西藏的銅造像》，香港，1981年，圖版151A-D；其六，大輪金剛手，現藏斯圖加特林登博物館，錄前述出處，圖版151B；其七，獨雄大威德金剛，現存處不詳，可見傑夫．瓦特，喜馬拉雅藝術資源網，編號30430。
寶帳大黑天乃喜金剛密續忿怒相護法，是藏傳佛教智慧怙主。元代篤信此怖畏形像可安邦護國，尤召請寶帳大黑天神通以佑戰事。寶帳大黑天與喜金剛密續息息相關，且為元代及明初帝皇所用，以證君權正統。因此，寶帳大黑天於明朝新政之初備受倚重，以怖畏姿態示人，雄健威嚴，莫過此尊。
The guardian deity Panjarnata Mahakala (Tib. Gur-gyi Gonpo) with a fearsome expression on his bearded face, lips parted showing teeth and fangs, with piercing eyes and flaming brows and a third eye on the forehead, snakes adorning the flaming hair, neck, earrings, armbands, bracelets, and anklets, and one serving as a sacred cord (Skt. upavita) draped over the left shoulder and encircling the corpulent waist, wearing a skull and chakra-wheel crown, a bone apron with pendant bells over a flayed tiger skin loincloth, a scarf and a garland of severed heads around the shoulders, with hands raised to hold a skull bowl (Skt. kapala, Tib. thod-pa) and flaying knife (Skt. kartika, Tib. drigu), both now missing, and standing in a militant posture with legs bent at the knee, trampling a supine figure on the separately cast lotus pedestal incised at the upper front surface with a six character Xuande reign mark, “Da Ming Xuande nian shi”, and sealed beneath with a red painted copper alloy plate incised with a vishvavajra (Tib. natsok-dorje).
This rare and finely cast Chinese gilt-bronze is the largest recorded Panjarnata Mahakala from the early Ming dynasty, and a highly important imperial commission. Another large 51.6 cm Ming example from the Nitta Collection, now in the Palace Museum, Taipei, is published in The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, Taipei, 1987, cat. no. 32 (fig. 1) A number of small-scale Yongle statues depicting Panjarnata Mahakala is known, including one in the collection of the Potala Palace, Lhasa, see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, vol. II, Hong Kong, 2001, pl. 348A (fig. 2), and the damascened iron figure in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see, Yang Xin et al., Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected at the Qing Palace, Hong Kong, 1992, pls 75-1 and 75-2. During the Yongle period, these smaller statues were often gifted to Tibetan hierarchs or monasteries, whereas this large temple sculpture is likely to have been commissioned for a Chinese shrine, perhaps in the capital, Beijing. The Xuande Emperor did not follow the same policy as his predecessor of lavishing gifts on Tibetans, but was known to continue the commissioning of Vajrayana Buddhist bronzes for shrines within China.
The Panjarnata Mahakala is one of a select group of large early Ming Buddhist gilt-bronze temple statues in public and private collections that include the 79 cm Mahasiddha Virupa in the Victoria and Albert Museum, included in the exhibition, Ming: 50 Years that changed China, The British Museum, London, 2014, cat. no. 204 (fig. 3); the 64 cm Xuande-reign marked Udayana Buddha in the Musée Cernuschi, ibid, pl. 175: the 136 cm Yongle-reign marked bodhisattva in the Musée Cernuschi from Qutansi monastery, Qinghai Province, illustrated in Karl Debreczeny, Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, Rubin Museum of Art, 2019, cat. no. 1.17; a 57.8 cm Chaturbhuja Mahakala in our New York rooms, 26th March 1998, lot 161 (fig. 4); the Bodhimanda Foundation Kapaladhara Hevajra (lot 3816) in this catalogue; and seven more large and important early Ming tantric gilt-bronze figures, formerly in the Gumpel Collection, which were offered at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, in 1904, including a Vajrabhairava and consort, later sold in our New York rooms, 25th March 1999, lot 122 (fig. 5); an Ekavira Vajrabhairava sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2016, lot 3234; a Vajrabhairava and consort sold at Nagel Auktionen, 23rd June 2021, lot 8; a Shadbhuja Mahakala and a 70 cm Guhyasamaja in Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pls 151A-D; a Mahachakra Vajrapani now in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, ibid, pl. 151B; and an Ekavira Vajrabhairava present whereabouts unknown but see Jeff Watt, www. himalayanart.org, item no. 30430.
Panjarnata Mahakala is the fierce protector deity of the Hevajra cycle of Tantras and Wisdom Protector of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Yuan dynasty, this militant form of the deity was designated State Protector, whose power was invoked in military engagements. The deity is closely linked with the Hevajra Tantra, the esoteric Buddhist practice in which Yuan and early Ming emperors were initiated as a means of endowing a spiritual legitimacy to their imperial status. Panjarnata Mahakala was thus a potent symbol of authority in the early Ming dynasty, powerfully expressed in the fearsome attitude of this rare and highly important gilt-bronze sculpture.
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