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Nritya Kali

ca. 1890s–1900
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 251
The four-armed goddess Kali, with her youthful, dark blue complexion and mandorla-like long black hair that frames her body, is seen here standing astride the prostrate figure of Shiva. She wields a butchering sword and displays two severed heads in her hands. A crow drinks from the dripping blood. This painting belongs to a genre of Kolkata devotional painting inspired by Bengali popular art traditions practiced in the city’s Kalighat temple district. Kalighat had emerged as a hugely popular pilgrim center for Kali worship, and is celebrated as one the fifty-one holy shakti pithas, places where body parts of Shiva’s deceased consort Sati fell to earth. Paintings such as this example provided prototypes for print artists engaged in lithography from the mid-nineteenth century onward.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Nritya Kali
  • Date: ca. 1890s–1900
  • Culture: West Bengal, Kolkata
  • Medium: Gouache and ink on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 8 7/16 × 7 1/16 in. (21.5 × 18 cm)
    Framed: 14 3/8 × 12 13/16 in. (36.5 × 32.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, by Exchange, 2024
  • Object Number: 2024.462
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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