Indian Shiva Lingam Votive Cover

A god's face, made to sit over a stone.

This Shiva lingam votive cover comes from India and dates to the 18th century. It is bronze. In Hindu temples and home shrines, priests place a metal cover of this kind over a lingam during worship, giving Shiva's abstract form a human face. A broad, calm face with lowered eyelids and a curling mustache looks out beneath a rolled band and a domed cap with a round finial. Spiral earrings hang at either side, pale residue gathers in the recesses, and small feet carry the rim. Twelve and a half inches high.

Calm is the whole expression, and it holds.