Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Vajravarahi
(India, Nepal, and Tibet)
Casting her eyes downward, Vajravarahi dances suspended in the air, the vivid red of her body alluding to her unfettered spirit and her capacity to create and destroy. Vajravarahi’s body exemplifies the feminine strength of the yogini—blissful, compassionate, and all-knowing. However, the face of the female pig ("varahi") that emerges from the side of her head shows her fierce nature, as do her garland of severed heads and her girdle made of bone.
In the shrine for which this figure was made, the sculpture would have also included a corpse lying beneath Vajravarahi’s feet, a blood-filled skull cup in her left hand, a curved knife in her right hand, and a staff crowned with skulls and a trident in the crook of her left arm. Together they represent the selfish and negative feelings the goddess has overcome.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Peter Burleigh [diplomat in Nepal], Washington, D.C.; purchased by John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, November 1985; given to Walters Art Museum, 2017.
Exhibitions
| 2016-2017 | Ferocious Beauty: Wrathful Deities from Tibet and Nepal. |
| 2001-2003 | Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 11/1/2016 | Treatment | examined for exhibition; media consolidation |
Geographies
Nepal (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 40 1/4 × W: 21 1/2 × D with mount: 22 in. (102.24 × 54.61 × 55.88 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2017
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
25.270