Untitled

Unknown

ca. 1879 · Lithograph, printed in black and hand-coloring with watercolor and selectively applied glaze · Asian Art

The awesome goddess Kali is perhaps the most readily recognized of all lithographic prints of this genre. She is seen here in classic form: a beautiful young woman of dark blue-black complexion with wild unbound hair, striding onto the corpse of Shiva that lies prostate in a charnel ground. Ghostly scenes of the tormented fill the background in a grisaille-type monochrome. Kali extends her red tongue fearsomely, and is adorned with macabre garlands of severed heads and limbs. She holds a freshly severed head and wields aloft the blooded sacrificial sword. Her forehead eye, beaming brilliantly, asserts her identity as an emanation of Durga-Parvati, Shiva’s wife and shakti in Tantric Shaivism.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1879

Medium

Lithograph, printed in black and hand-coloring with watercolor and selectively applied glaze

Culture

West Bengal, Calcutta

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Robert and Bobbie Falk Philanthropic Fund Gift, 2021