Kali
Painting
ca. 1885 (made)
ca. 1885 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, Kali is depicted enshrined inside the Kalighat temple. This image of Goddess Kali is an aspect of the deity in her most terryfying form and as black skinned, four armed with her tongue out, wearing a garland, supposed to be of human heads. She has the third eye on her forehead. The deity holds her upper right palm in abhoy-mudra and the lower right palm in baroda-mudra. In her her lower left hand she holds a severed head of an Asur and in her upper left hand she holds a kharga, sacrificial axe. The deity is depicted in one hand as a benevolent goddess and on the other as fearsome. The image is elaborately ornated in Kalighat style in tin alloy with necklace, ear and nose rings, amulets and bracelets. The image is also adorned with a tiara.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Kali (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Painted in opaque watercolour on paper |
Brief description | Painting, Kali, opaque watercolour on paper, Kalighat, Kolkata, ca. 1885 |
Physical description | Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, Kali is depicted enshrined inside the Kalighat temple. This image of Goddess Kali is an aspect of the deity in her most terryfying form and as black skinned, four armed with her tongue out, wearing a garland, supposed to be of human heads. She has the third eye on her forehead. The deity holds her upper right palm in abhoy-mudra and the lower right palm in baroda-mudra. In her her lower left hand she holds a severed head of an Asur and in her upper left hand she holds a kharga, sacrificial axe. The deity is depicted in one hand as a benevolent goddess and on the other as fearsome. The image is elaborately ornated in Kalighat style in tin alloy with necklace, ear and nose rings, amulets and bracelets. The image is also adorned with a tiara. |
Dimensions |
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Content description | Kali enshrined inside the Kalighat temple. |
Styles | |
Object history | Purchased from Miss M. Steele in 1950, as part of a collection inherited from her mother, a scholar in Sanskrit in 1894. Miss Steele reported that her grandmother had also lived in India for some time and that it was possible that the pictures were originally collected by her. |
Subjects depicted | |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | IS.658-1950 |
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Record created | July 28, 2006 |
Record URL |
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