Description
En bois sculpté en haut-relief, la déesse représentée sur la partie haute sous un arbre aux fruits charnus, son tigre à ses pieds, soumettant le démon-buffle représenté en forme humaine, le dieu singe Hanuman représenté sur la partie basse, sur socle, manques et détérioration du bois.
Dim. : 107 x 20 cm
Accademia Fine Art, Monaco, 26 juin 2026: n°87
As the embodiment of shakti, the feminine energy that is both creative and destructive, Durga is particularly celebrated for her victory over Mahishasura, the shape-shifting buffalo demon whom the gods were unable to defeat. Here, she is depicted in triumph, with her tiger at her feet, subduing the demon in his human form.
Nepalese carved wooden architectural decoration reached a particularly high level of richness and sophistication during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Several Nepalese carved wooden pillars of similar composition, depicting a standing deity beneath a tree above a lower register featuring a secondary figure, and dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, have appeared at auction at Christie’s, Paris, Art d’Asie, 20 June 2017, lots 152–154, and at Olympia Auctions, London, 4 June 2025, lot 139.
Two further examples, simpler in execution but stylistically related, are held at the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to the seventeenth century (inv. nos. 1985-1025 and 1985-1026).
