Ritual Bronzes of Maharashtra and Karnataka (Including The Bhuta Region)

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This volume culminates forty plus years of collecting experience including twenty seven trips to India, numerous visits to New York and London auction sales, dealers and most importantly visits to collectors of Indian ritual art in India, England, France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. My purpose was always to expand my knowledge of Indian ritual art, especially of folk and tribal regions.

Ritual Bronzes of Maharashtra and Karnataka Including the Bhuta Region includes a wide range of subject matter: Ganesha, rider figures, mukha-linga, mukhavta (facial masks), demons, Hanuman, Nandi, Devi, utsava-murti (processional images), palanquin covers, the various animals found in Indian art, as well other topics. Text is enhanced by 184 illustrations, many of full page format.

Chapters on bhuta religious practices by Cornelia Mallebrein, PhD., a world authority, provide a detailed introduction to the unique religious expression of southern Karnataka and the contiguous Malabar region of Kerala with numerous field photos and illustrations of bhuta religious bronzes.

An inveterate traveler and collector ever since a tour of duty as a medical officer in postwar Germany in 1947, Dr. Figiel, a board certified radiologist, author of sixty scientific papers and contributor to numerous medical exhibits both nationally and internationally, has become noted for his collections of Asiatic art.

Much of his collection of Edo period Japanese art, consisting of netsuke, cloisonné and lacquer, was gifted to the Detroit Institute of Art and the Flint Museum of Art.

Following his first trip to India in 1965, he accumulated a major collection of Indo-Islamic weapons and authored On Damascus Steel which serves as a major reference on this subject.

Over the last forty years, his main collecting interest has centered on folk and tribal art of India, most of which has been dispersed through gifts to various museums. Recently, Dr. Figiel was the subject of an article in Marg* which summarized his many gifts.

Most of the bronzes illustrated in this book have been donated to the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and will be the subject of an exhibition in 2009.

**Contents and Sample Pages**