A LARGE BRONZE FIGURE OF NILAMBARA VAJRAPANI, TIBET, TSANG VALLEY, 13TH-14TH CENTURYPublished and exhibited: John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Columbus Museum of Art, 5 October 2003 to 9 May 2004, pp. 203-204, cat. no. 53.Powerfully modeled and boldly cast striding in aldhasana atop a double-headed naga on a lotus base, his right hand holding a vajra and his left held admonishingly in tarjani mudra. He is wearing a tiger pelt around his waist and adorned with jewelry in the form of snakes as well as a beaded necklace. His face with a wrathful expression marked by sharp fangs, wide eyes, raised brows centered by a prominent urna, and a neatly incised beard. His fiery hair is surmounted by a blade-like protuberance with an image of Akshobya Buddha.Provenance: Oriental Gem Co., London, United Kingdom, by 1971. The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Collection, Columbus, Ohio, USA. John (d. 2021) and Susan Huntington are important scholars of Buddhist art, who have done extensive field research and photographic documentation throughout Asia. The couple were not just partners in life but partners in their chosen work of teaching, researching, and publishing about the art of Asia. John’s doctoral dissertation, Styles and Stylistic Sources of Tibetan Painting, was a pioneering work written at a time when there was little, if any, scholarly attention being paid to the study of Tibetan art. Following his doctoral work, John spent 1969-1970 traveling in Asia on a National Endowment for the Humanities postdoctoral fellow pursuing his study of Buddhist art. At the same time, Susan was doing field research in India on a Fulbright grant for her doctoral dissertation. They married in India in 1970. Prior to undertaking graduate studies, John had been a professional photographer and throughout his life, his passion for photography never waned. Susan had developed an abiding interest in photography since taking a course in high school. Together, with Susan making exhaustive field notes as they photographed, the pair developed a teamwork that continued throughout their lifetime of field work, culminating in the John C. and Susan L. Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art, which contains nearly 300,000 original slides and photographs documenting art and architecture throughout Asia. Both taught at the Ohio State University, with Susan serving as Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education from 1995 and 2005, and John building a flourishing program in Asian art history, and they have published many articles and books on a wide range of topics related to Asian and Buddhist art, both separately and together. The collecting history of the Huntingtons aligned closely with their academic research and passion for learning. While they collected works in established categories that epitomized major Indian and Himalayan ar