Kurukulla, Vanquisher of Evil Spirits
Artist/maker unknown, Mongolian or Tibetan
Geography:
Made in Mongolia, Asia
or Tibet, Asia
Date:
c. 18th centuryMedium:
Colors on cloth; cloth mountingsDimensions:
Image: 16 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches (42.5 x 32.4 cm) Mount: 36 1/2 x 23 inches (92.7 x 58.4 cm) Frame: 44 1/2 × 29 3/8 × 2 5/8 inches (113 × 74.6 × 6.7 cm)Curatorial Department:
South Asian ArtObject Location:
1959-38-4Credit Line:
Gift of Stella Kramrisch, 1959
Made in Mongolia, Asia
or Tibet, Asia
Date:
c. 18th centuryMedium:
Colors on cloth; cloth mountingsDimensions:
Image: 16 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches (42.5 x 32.4 cm) Mount: 36 1/2 x 23 inches (92.7 x 58.4 cm) Frame: 44 1/2 × 29 3/8 × 2 5/8 inches (113 × 74.6 × 6.7 cm)Curatorial Department:
South Asian ArtObject Location:
Currently not on view
Accession Number:1959-38-4Credit Line:
Gift of Stella Kramrisch, 1959
Label:
In this painting the goddess Kurukulla brandishes a bow and arrow and a goad (composed of flowers) to subdue malicious spirits. Her tiger-skin skirt suggests the fearlessness she requires of her devotees, such as the monk in the upper left corner. He may be the Indian teacher Atisha (982-1054), who promoted worship of Kurukulla in Tibet. The bucolic landscape at the bottom of the painting contrasts craggy, golden mountains-populated with deer and a family of waterfowl swimming on a jewel-filled pond-with sinister raptors and a tiger eating a human corpse next to a white stupa (at lower right). Like Christian memento mori paintings, such reminders of death are meant to alert viewers of the preciousness of life.
In this painting the goddess Kurukulla brandishes a bow and arrow and a goad (composed of flowers) to subdue malicious spirits. Her tiger-skin skirt suggests the fearlessness she requires of her devotees, such as the monk in the upper left corner. He may be the Indian teacher Atisha (982-1054), who promoted worship of Kurukulla in Tibet. The bucolic landscape at the bottom of the painting contrasts craggy, golden mountains-populated with deer and a family of waterfowl swimming on a jewel-filled pond-with sinister raptors and a tiger eating a human corpse next to a white stupa (at lower right). Like Christian memento mori paintings, such reminders of death are meant to alert viewers of the preciousness of life.
