Citipati figure – Bronze – Nepal

A Nepalese bronze figure of Shri Shma Citipati.

The Citipati are an intricate part of the iconography of (especially) Vajrayana Buddhism. Often they are depicted as a pair of dancing skeletons (one male, one female), dancing wildly in a halo of flames which symbolizes the transformational power of fire and the constantly shifting character of reality. Their dance represents the dance of life and death, the dynamic interaction between creation and destruction and the everlasting flow of life. And the happiness that comes from the ultimate liberation of breaking free from the cycle of reincarnation

Standing on a lotus base in a dynamic pose, his legs spread apart, wearing a loose skirt and a ribbon looping over his shoulders, holding a kapala and a human foot, the head adorned with side ribbons and a small skull headdress surmounted with vajra, the eyes and the kapala highlighted in red pigment,

Provenance: former private Italian collection.