1982.9.FA Vajravarahi

Vajravarahi is one of the wrathful deities of Tantric Buddhism, and like other dakini (celestial female divinities) she possesses supernatural wisdom and power. The conventional iconography for Vajravarahi shows the deity holding a knife and a bowl of blood, and wearing other grotesque attributes that symbolize her power over worldly concerns and fear of death. In many images, she balances gracefully on her left foot while standing upon a prostrate humanlike figure. However, this bronze, gilded statue of Vajravarahi has been separated from its lower elements. The missing prostrate figure under her foot would have represented the "ultimate evil" of Buddhism: the delusion of a truly existent self (atmagraha). By standing upon this figure, Vajravarahi shows that she has vanquished the delusion, and that it will be conquered by all who successfully achieve her Tantra (mystical path to enlightenment). 

Vajravarahi's name derives from vajra (the mystical tool of enlightenment) and varahi (sow). The sow aspect is seen in the pig head that emerges from the right side of her head. This cosmic pig represents the light of wisdom in the inner mind, and the light of the sun in the outer world, with its power to warm, nurture, and illuminate. Vajravarahi's dancing pose and kinetic energy demonstrate her power to suppress ignorance and greed, while her nudity and wrathful expression combine the seductiveness of feminine beauty with the fearsome attributes of a ferocious deity. She wears a long necklace of fifty-one severed heads representing the elimination of the fifty-one worldly states of mind. A crown of five skulls represents the extinction of the five poisons. The human skull cup in her left hand is filled with the scrambled brains of worldly thoughts and conceptions, while the upraised vajra-handled knife in her right hand cuts off all those worldly concepts and leaves only pristine awareness (jnana). 

Vajravarahi's nakedness represents the purity of the mind and body, unencumbered by the "clothing" of the conventional world: misconceptions and delusions. Her beauty represents the sublime nature of pure awareness. The use of fine gold and jewels seen here represents the glory of supreme realization and is a traditional Buddhist way of paying homage to the deity embodied by the image. Images of deities are hollow-cast so that precious relic offerings and small scrolls of mantras or prayers relevant to that deity may be sealed within by a qualified monk or yogi, thus consecrating the image so that the deity abides within it. In this way the sculpture becomes a suitable object for worship, devotion, and meditation. The contrast between the jeweled luxury of the inlaid gilt-bronze sculpture and its harsh underlying meanings occurs frequently in Tantric art, where sex and death are seen as part of one universal reality, to be expressed in art by glowing colors, exuberant rhythms, lavish ornament, and expressive, earthy vigor.

Excerpt from Emily Sano found on TMS. Not sure where it was from originally. 

Tibetan Buddhism: AAT: 300265647

Tantrism: AAT: 300143658

Tibet: TGN: 7001319

bronze: AAT: 300010957

gilding (technique): AAT: 300053789

gold (metal): AAT: 300011021

sculpture: AAT: 300047090

casting (process): AAT: 300053104

blood: AAT: 300011797

Vajrayana: AAT: 300022016

cups (drinking vessels): AAT: 300043202

dancing: AAT: 300389779

deaths: AAT: 300151836

deities: AAT: 300343850

devotional images (religious works): AAT: 300178241

devotional objects: AAT: 300234144

enlightenment (religious concept): AAT: 300404722

eroticism: AAT: 300249821

fear: AAT: 300055160

goddess: AAT: 300343852

knives: AAT: 300024668

meditation: AAT: 300264363

mortality: AAT: 300265775

nudity (culture-related concepts): AAT: 300262617

pig (animals/genus sus): AAT: 300250114

power: AAT: 300374809

prayers (oral works): AAT: 300400521

relics: AAT: 300250795

reliquaries (liturgical containers): AAT: 300187549

ritual objects: AAT: 300312158

skull (skeleton component): AAT: 300191856

Tantrism: AAT: 300143658

Tibet: TGN: 7001319

Tibetan Buddhism: AAT: 300265647

Vajrayana: AAT: 300022016

wisdom: AAT: 300380150

worship: AAT: 300056005

1981: Doris Weiner Gallery, New York

1982: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the Virginia C. and Floyd C. Ramsey Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas, purchase from above. [1] [2]

The main source for this provenance is the Foundation for the Arts Acquisition Record, dated February 24, 1982, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records object file. Exceptions and supporting documentation are noted. 

[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983. 

[2] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.

Apply to objects where number equals 1982.9.FA