19th C. Himalayan Kirtimukha Repousse Maskette

Central Asia, Himalayas, Nepal or Tibet. A grinning apotropaic face swells out of a thin brass disc, hammered from the reverse in repousse until nose, brow, and bulging eyes stand fully proud of the sheet. The bulbous nostrils flare above a wide mouth crowded with blunt teeth and rounded fangs; twin bosses at the cheeks and a third at the crown read as swollen eyes or jewels, and the flat, chin-less lower field is characteristic of the kirtimukha, the "face of glory" that devours all and is left with only a head. Small piercings around the rim show where the plaque was once nailed or lashed to a wooden ground, likely a temple door, shrine surround, or ritual furnishing. Green and cuprite-red corrosion mottles the surface, softening the hammered relief. The kirtimukha, also called the kala head, enters Himalayan Buddhist and Hindu art from Indian precedent, where a myth in the Skanda Purana tells of a ravenous being created by Shiva to destroy an enemy. Deprived of its prey, it consumed its own body until only the face remained, and Shiva, delighted, ordered that it be set above every doorway as a guardian and a condition of entry. The devouring logic explains the form: a grin without a jaw, all teeth and appetite. In Nepalese and Tibetan practice the motif crowns torana arches, door lintels, mirror backs, and the tops of thangka mounts, screening the sacred interior from what should not pass. Sheet-metal versions such as this one were fixed to woodwork with small nails through the flange, the repousse work raised over pitch and finished with chased detail. Item # 204664

Estimate:£226.06

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