Provenance:
Collection of Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck
Sotheby's, London, March 10th, 1986, no. 122
Collection of Raymond Cheven
The great Tibetan yogin Milarepa is depicted with his traditional cotton robe wrapped around his shoulders and a meditation strap (yogapatta) across the chest. His right hand is extended in a gesture of debate (vitarka mudra), the left holds a skull cup (kapala), and he is seated on an antelope skin draped over a lotus pedestal. The whites of the eyes are inlaid in silver, the corners with copper, and the pupils with black pitch. The meditation strap over his shoulder is inlaid with copper.
Compare the engraved textile design of Milarepa’s robe, the metal inlay on golden bronze, and the style of the lotus pedestal of a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century central-Tibetan portrait statue of Sonam Senge in Faces of Tibet: The Wesley and Carolyn Halpert Collection, Carlton Rochell Asian Art exhibition catalogue, New York, 2003, no. 33, confirming a similar date and provenance for the present example.
Milarepa is one of the most celebrated figures of Tibetan Buddhism. Living during the eleventh and twelfth centuries as an ordinary Tibetan, he was orphaned young and learned black magic to avenge the deprivation of inheritance caused by his immediate relatives. Repentant, he retired to the Himalayas where he turned to the study of Tantric Buddhism and achieved enlightenment under the teachings of the great Master, Marpa, thus becoming one of the leading figures of the Kagyu School. Much of the information about Milarepa is known through the stories he sang while on retreat in the mountains, dealing with his hermitages, encounters, renunciations, and contentment.
