Goddess Kali
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Goddess Kali
- Date: ca. 1879
- Culture: West Bengal, Calcutta
- Medium: Lithograph, printed in black and hand-coloring with watercolor and selectively applied glaze
- Dimensions: Sheet: 15 3/4 × 12 1/2 in. (40 × 31.8 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Robert and Bobbie Falk Philanthropic Fund Gift, 2021
- Object Number: 2021.200
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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