A seated bronze figurine of Mahakala, 15/16th century or earlier.
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The robust four armed protector, seated, wearing an animal skin, adorned, his wrathful expression with bared fangs and bulging eyes, centered by a third eye, and surmounted by a skull and jewel diadem/crown. Height 17 cm.
Tarnished.
Provenance
The Collection of Hans Albertsen (1855-1940), Denmark. Morten Albertsen (1878-1924, the oldest of Hans's sons, was commissioned in the year 1900 as the Officer of Customs in China and he came to work throughout all of China. He later took up residence in Shanghai together with his sister Anna Albertsen (1897-1976) who came to join him in China when she was 19 years old. The two adventurous siblings came to live in Sui-Feu-ho in Siberia in 1922, but after a blood stained Bolshevik attack they fled to Swatow in Southern China. Morten documented his travels with his camera and purchased artefacts that the sent home to his father, the Danish Art Collector Hans Albertsen.
Anna Albertsen married an Englishman, Jack D. Jones (1895-1951 who was an honorable Officer at Customs and keen collector of art and works of art. The married couple lived in Shanghai, Hankow and Kaio Choa on Kulangsu. During the Japanese attack in 1943 the couple were captured and placed in torture-like imprisonment in Japan. They were released in 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hrioshima and Nagasaki. Their home was in ruins but they manage to send home some of their belongings via Hong Kong to England, where they moved. Jack D Jones was later commissioned as Officer of Customs for the Abyssinian Customs. The couple remained childless and after their death their collection came to their Danish relatives. The Collection offered here was brought together by Hans Albertsen, Morten Albertsen and Jack D Jones.
Literature
Related sculptures are published and discussed in The Art of Tibet, Pal, Pratapaditya, Asia Society, New York, 1969. No 64 and 65, images on page 98.
More information
Mahakala is a protector deity known as the primary Wisdom Protector of Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhism as well as a meditational deity. While he has many different forms, he is typically depicted with a wrathful appearance, such as in the present work where he appears seated with four arms, holding tantric implements.
