Hinduism: In the Realm of Gods and Goddesses
The last gallery tour I attended at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has left a huge impression on me. I went back for another visit on October 26, Friday. This time I attended a gallery talk called Hinduism: In the Realm of Gods and Goddesses. The guide’s name was Marie-Hélène Weill. The gallery talk was much more different than the gallery tour I had been to a few weeks ago. Rather than being very informative about the sculptures in the galleries, she told many stories about the Hindu gods and goddesses, which were very interesting.
The evening started out with the usual train delay due to rainy weather. I was running a little late and missed the tour meeting at the Great Hall under the clock. Worried about missing the gallery talk completely, I quickly ran to the Asian Art galleries. After searching for a few minutes, I was relieved to have found Mrs. Marie-Hélène Weill. She began the gallery talk with many different sculptures of the Hindu god named Shiva. He is said to be the most powerful god in Hinduism, which I was not really aware of prior to this gallery talk. Shiva is believed to exist in many forms. His most common depiction is as a dark-skinned ascetic with a blue throat. He is usually found seated cross-legged on a tiger skin. He has four arms and three eyes. The third eye, in the middle of his forehead, is always closed and only opens to annihilate an evildoer. Each of the different sculptures of Shiva had unique styles. They were from different periods of time. I have never seen these different types of sculptures expect for maybe one or two of them in the temples. The sculptures were from different countries too.
After talking about Shiva, she started talking about his wife. Her name was Parvati. All of her sculptures had narrow waists, which was a common theme among Indian sculptures. Most of the sculptures were broken on the sides or bottom, which showed that they were part of a bigger sculpture or a temple. She is the only female deity, who like Vishnu has the ability to change her form. She appears in incarnations as Durga and Kali. As Parvati she is soft and gentle. But as Durga she becomes a powerful warrior and as Kali a bloodthirsty goddess who can even demand sacrificial killings.
I found it interesting how after talking about Shiva and Parvati, she started talking about their son Ganesha. There was not much difference between his sculptures like Shiva and Parvati. It was probably because Ganesha was not well known among the followers of Hinduism. Unlike the other gods and goddesses, Ganesha has a head of an elephant. I was fascinated to hear the story of how his head turned out to be like that. Once Parvati, while bathing told her son Ganesha to guard the entrance. When Shiva, her husband returned, he was denied access into the house, and struck off the Ganesha’s head in rage. Parvati broke down in utter grief and to soothe her, Shiva went out to find the first living being in his path for a replacement head. He found a white elephant and severed its head for Ganesha. Then he attached the head to Ganesha’s body and restored his life. I actually have a sculpture of Ganesha in my house, which looks very much like one of the sculptures I saw in the gallery.
This particular visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was very different from the last visit. The main difference was that this time it was a gallery talk instead of a gallery tour. This visit consisted of only religious sculptures and along with the sculptures I learned about many fascinating details about Hindu gods and goddesses. The gallery talk was very informative about the gods and goddesses rather than the sculpture itself. This gallery talk is good to attend if you are looking forward to broaden your knowledge about Hinduism and experience sculptures from Hinduism as well at the same time.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:18 pm
i think there’s a three eyed god in chinese legends and he also doesn’t open the third eye in the middle of his unless it is to attack someone. it’s interesting to see how some cultures are related. and i don’t know about an elephant god but i think the elephant is supposed to be a good symbol in buddhism although i’m really not sure.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:32 am
I think its very intersting what you learned about the Hindu Gods and Goddesses; Shiva and Parvati. To me its very interesting to learn about such ancient religions especially today where religion seems to be the cause for many conflicts. I find the themes in these sculptures very interesting since they tell so much about the beliefs and traditions of the religion.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:36 pm
It was very interesting to see how the art told a story here. In addition, I think we see here the important role art plays in religion throughout history, as a tool to chronicle religion.
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:57 am
I think that the connection between religion and art is a deep one, with many complexities. At various times in history, religious art has been the only significant art, and religious leaders/groups have been the only significant patrons of art. From our current perspective we see these objects as historical – chronicling the religion, as Steven notes. But in its own time religious art has also been a way to enhance the religion’s power, to mediate the relationship between the individual and the divine, to communicate religious principles/stories to the non-literate, etc. You might consider how these objects/images were created and used in their own time, and how there has been a shift in their reception from the time of their production to the current time.
On a related note, one could see the shift in art’s historical focus from religious art to state-sponsored art to market-driven art as mirroring changes in the larger culture – the power of religion is supplanted by the power of the state, which in turn is supplanted by the power of the market – in this way art is both a product of and a reflection of the values of the culture that produced it.
These are big generalizations of course but maybe also food for thought, and perhaps useful as we try to analyze art in its current incarnation.