Provenance:
European Private Collection
The legend of Shiva’s wedding to Parvati is depicted in panels with tapering uprights and rock-work crossbars indicating a mountain setting.
In the lower register the four-armed Shiva rides with Nandi across the sky to his marriage in the Himalayas, an attendant holds a parasol (chattra), with an emaciated rishi and a chauri-bearer amongst palm trees below. Panels to the left and right depict the Eight Mother Goddesses (astamatrka) including: Brahmani and Kaumari in the lower left, Chamunda and Maheshvari(?) above, Vaishnavi at the lower right (fragmentary, with her attribute the chakra remaining), and Indrani upper right.
The tier above depicts the wedding of Shiva and Parvati (kalyana sundara). Shiva takes Parvati’s right hand in a tender gesture (panigrahana) signifying the act of marriage, with a rishi in attendance and a sacrificial fire offering (homa) between them. Vishnu, as the giver in marriage, stands to the left with Garuda. Brahma, the divine priest, stands with an ascetic to the right.
In the upper register, Shiva and Parvati sit in loving embrace (umamaheshvara) at their abode on Mount Kailash with their sons at either side—Kumara with his peacock on the right and four-armed Ganesha dancing on the left.
The tapering panel may represent part of the four-sided tower (shikara) of a temple model that would have risen above the shrine (garbhagriha) of the temple’s deity, with a domed finial above. Gilded repoussé copper is a highly effective and durable medium for use in large scale structures, such as the vast repoussé superstructure of the stupas at Densatil to which cast bronze deities are applied.[1]
The Newar artists’ skill in the repoussé technique is legendary, and they were employed throughout Tibet and China as well as the Kathmandu Valley; compare the style and the painted red background of a Nepalese or Tibetan fourteenth-century gilt-copper section of a large repoussé mandala.[2]
1 Olaf Czaja and Adriana Proser, eds., Golden Visions of Densatil: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, New York, 2014, pp. 144-145, cat. no 35
2 David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pp. 74-75, fig. 46
