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Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi with Their Retinue (Primary Title)
paubha (Nepalese religious painting) (Object Name)

Unknown (Artist)

late 14th–early 15th century
Nepalese
Paintings
opaque watercolor on cloth
South Asian Art
Image: 37 1/8 × 28 7/8 in. (94.3 × 73.34 cm)
Framed: 60 × 39 in. (152.4 × 99.06 cm)
91.550
Not on view

This early Nepalese painting shows the union of the blue-skinned deity Chakrasamvara with his red-skinned consort Vajravarahi. Chakrasamvara represents the everyday world and perfected compassion and Vajravarahi, the spiritual world and transcendental wisdom. The couple’s passionate embrace symbolizes the ultimate goals of the Himalayan Buddhist practitioner: the reconciliation of the transitory and the absolute and the blissful integration of compassion and wisdom. A product of this union—the flame of sublime insight—surrounds the two figures, destroying all malevolent influences and obstacles to enlightenment.

Berthe and John Ford Collection, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
By August 1967, Dr. Mary Shepherd Slusser [1918 – 2017]; [1] by February 1981, Berthe and John Ford; [2] purchased by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), accessioned into VMFA collection in December 1991. [3]

[1] Object corresponds to #430 in Slusser's accessions notebook, purchased from "Man Krishna Tamrakar” in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal on August 27, 1967.

[2] For the transfer to the Fords, see Slusser's accessions notebook #430 and Mary Shepherd Slusser, "Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings," www.asianart.com, July 2003.

[3] Accessioned December 17, 1991. Information in VMFA Curatorial and Registration files.
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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