Goddess Kali

An item at Metropolitan Museum of 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.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art