A Rare and Highly Important Copper Alloy Figure of a 'Demon'

J.J. Klejman, New York, before 1968
Pan Asian collects ion
Christie's New York: December 1, 1982, lot 164

Unknown India: Ritual Art in Tribe and Village, Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 20 — February 26, 1968, San Francisco, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, March 28 — June 9, 1968, City Art Museum of Saint Louis, July 15 — August 20, 1968

India!, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 14, 1985 — January 5, 1986

Gods and Goddesses in India, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, December 1, 1984 — April 12, 1985

Change and Continuity: Folk and Tribal Art of India, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, January 31 — March 28, 2004

S. Kramrisch, Unknown India: Ritual Art in Tribe and Village, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1968, pl. XXII, no. 89

S.C. Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York, 1985, p.98, fig. 51

B. Dursum, Change and Continuity: Folk and Tribal Art of India, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, 2004, p. 27, no. 35

Leo Figiel: A Passion for Sharing, Marg Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 3, 2005, p. 67

L. Figiel, Ritual Bronzes of Maharashtra and Karnataka Including the Bhuta Region, Boynton Beach, 2007, p. 173, fig. 19-184

Wear and accretion overall consistent with age. Losses to proper right elbow, base by proper right foot, and some breaks and losses to band at face and head as visible in catalogue illustration. Scattered losses on reverse to proper left hip, should and back of head. Could benefit from a light cleaning.
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The present work, a rare and significant 17^th century sculpture known as the 'Demon bronze,' is to date the most renowned, widely published and frequently exhibited Indian folk bronze in the world. The highlight of the Leo Figiel, M.D. collects ion, the 'Demon bronze' has been featured in four major museum exhibitions, including two of the first groundbreaking exhibitions on Indian art in the United States: Unknown India: Ritual Art in Tribe and Village at The Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1968, curated by the late Dr. Stella Kramrisch; as well as INDIA! at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1985, curated by the late Stuart Cary Welch.

Standing upright with teeth bared and mouth agape, his two arms lifted as he raises a small child to his lips to devour it, the 'Demon bronze' exudes a powerful and primal terror. A village bhuta or spirit, such as the Demon bronze, would have been supplicated for a variety of sacred and mundane purposes, such as securing marriages, increasing harvests, curing disease or infertility, and pacifying or provoking enemies. The sculpture would have been kept within a small village shrine, garlanded with flowers, anointed with traditional offerings like vermillion powder and ghee, and offered marigold petals and small diyas or oil lamps.  

Created in the cire perdue or lost wax method of bronze casting, the 'Demon bronze' is particularly unusual due to its large size, hollow casting, and the bands of open work in the sculpture, fashioned by the artisan using a modified dhun or wax thread technique.

In the complex cire perdue hollow-casting method (common throughout rural India) an exact model of the sculpture is first created using a fine mixture of clay and animal dung, and then wrapped in wax and resin thread, made by pushing wax blocks through a sieve. Details are worked into the wax layer with delicate hand tools, and the sculpture is then coated in several more layers of clay and earth of increasing density which function as a refractory. The sculpture is then fired, which both hardens the outer clay mold and melts the wax layer surrounding the inner clay core. Molten bronze is poured into the clay mold, filling the space left by the lost wax. The sculpture is then cooled with water, and the clay husk and core chipped away to reveal the bronze beneath, which is then polished and detailed by hand.   

Ascertaining the origin of this sculpture is a difficult task as there are so few extant examples utilizing the hollow-cast, open-band technique with which to compare the current work. In his book Ritual Bronzes of Maharashtra and Karnataka, Dr Figiel notes: “Previously assigned to Andhra Pradesh, I have concluded that a more likely assignation [for the Demon bronze] is Karnataka. One can clearly exclude Tamil Nadu; Kerala; northeast India including Bengal and Orissa; and northern India including Himachal Pradesh; leaving only Andhra Pradesh; central India; Maharashtra and Karnataka. A large scale worship of spirits, bhutas, demons and ghosts is fairly common in tribal areas of the region indicated, but it is especially prevalent in Karnataka – hence, I have concluded it is likely the site of the origin of this bronze.” (Figiel, 2007, p. 172)