A painting of Guhyakali

NEPAL, 18TH/19TH CENTURY

Details

A painting of Guhyakali
Nepal, 18th/19th century
Supported by kneeling deities over a lotus blossom, the principle hands holding diminutive deities before the ferocious face in her belly and the others outstretched and holding a multitude of weapons, the central face with bared fangs and bulging eyes, flanked and surmounted by tiers of other faces in various forms, backed by a flaming aureole, with seated donors in the foreground and a mountainous landscape in the background
28¾ x 26 3/8 in. (73 x 67 cm.)

Provenance

Private collection, California

Literature

Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org), item no. 23405

Lot Essay

Guhyakali is a Tantric form of the goddess Kali arising from the Shaiva and Shakta tantric literature. Nepalese paintings portraying the goddess are quite rare; see P. Pal, The Arts of Nepal, 1978, p. 89 and fig. no. 124 for discussion and another from the Zimmerman collection.

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