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Cabinet with Chitipati
(India, Nepal, and Tibet)
The gleefully dancing skeletons painted on this cabinet are commonly known as chitipati, lords ("pati") of the cremation ground or funeral pyre ("chiti"). They serve many functions for practitioners of tantric Buddhist rituals, from protection to the guarding of wealth. The larger skeleton seen on the right (proper left) is male; he wears a tiger skin loincloth and stands on a conch shell. His female partner wears a lower garment that matches her swirling scarf and rests her lowered foot on a cowrie shell. Products of the charnel ground surround them: Beneath the canopy of flayed skins and organs, two vultures help themselves to a pair of eyes and a heart. Surrounding the lotus pedestal of the chitipati are wrathful offerings, including offerings of the senses, represented by the respective parts of the body spilling out of skull cups.
The cabinet may have been used in a shrine for wrathful deities, or, when open, it may have served as a shrine itself.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Spink & Son, London [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, June 14, 1995, by purchase.
Exhibitions
| 2001-2003 | Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong. |
Geographies
Tibet (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Overall H: 27 × W: 18 1/4 × D: 12 5/16 in. (68.58 × 46.36 × 31.27 cm); Door only H: 23 3/4 × W: 16 1/2 × D: 3/4 in. (60.33 × 41.91 × 1.91 cm)
Credit Line
Promised gift of John and Berthe Ford
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
F.198