Kali: Representations in Art (Part 1)

Kālī also known as Kālikā, is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, or shakti. She is the fierce aspect of the goddess Durga. The name of Kali means black one and force of time, she is therefore called the Goddess of Time, Change, Power, Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. Her earliest appearance is that of a destroyer principally of evil forces. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman; and recent devotional movements re-imagine Kāli as a benevolent mother goddess. She is often portrayed standing or dancing on her husband, the god Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her. Worshipped throughout India but particularly Bengal, and Assam, Kali is both geographically and culturally diverse.

What better way to worship the goddess if not take a stroll down the backyard, and see how She has been depicted across timelines. :)

Ada Corishant, "The Virgin of the Pagoda". Illustration by Giuseppe Gamba for the 1897 edition of "I Misteri della Jungla Nera" ("The Mystery of the Black Jungle")
Publisher: A. Donath, Genoa.

Kali in Boutique style on cloth.

Kali. Himachal. 1790s.

Hand-colored engraving titled "Ceremony of Throwing the Colossal Statue of the Goddess Cali into the Water" by Frederic Shoberl from his work ''The World in Miniature: Hindoostan''. London: R. Ackerman, 1820's.

Engraving titled "The Thugs Worshipping Kalee". The Missionary Repository for Youth, and Sunday School Missionary Magazine Vol XII (1850), p. 98. Illustration for the article "The Thugs".

 "The Kalee-poojah [feast] of the Thugs". From Harper's Weekly, 1858.