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Lot Essay
Kali, the embodiment of the destructive power of time, stands astride the body of Shiva, representing the destroyed universe. Her tongue struck out, she is naked, save for a belt of hands and a necklace of skulls. Her nakedness is a sign of her purity and she holds a severed head, symbolic of human ego. Only jackals and vultures circle the funeral pyres acting as Kali's base.
Kali is painted face forward rather than in profile, an unusual depiction also seen in an earlier Mandi painting from the Ludwig Habighorst Collection, sold at Christie's London, 27 October 2022, lot 87. The distinctive elaborate margins of this work with cusped cartouches containing attendants of Kali and associated animals are similar to those found on a painting of Raja Isvari Sen of Mandi worshipping Shiva, attributed to the artist Sajnu, illustrated by W.G. Archer in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London, 1973, fig. 46, p. 275.
Kali is painted face forward rather than in profile, an unusual depiction also seen in an earlier Mandi painting from the Ludwig Habighorst Collection, sold at Christie's London, 27 October 2022, lot 87. The distinctive elaborate margins of this work with cusped cartouches containing attendants of Kali and associated animals are similar to those found on a painting of Raja Isvari Sen of Mandi worshipping Shiva, attributed to the artist Sajnu, illustrated by W.G. Archer in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London, 1973, fig. 46, p. 275.