TWELVE BUDDHIST DEVOTIONAL PAINTED ICONS AND AUSPICIOUS SYMBOLS
Tibet, Nepal and Himalayan foothills, 19th and 20th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper and canvas, comprising a miscellaneous group of small rectangular painted icons from the Buddhist pantheon, like Vajrabhairava, the Destroyer of Death (Vajrayana Buddhism); figures from the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead; a seated Tara; a Gate Guardian (Dvarpala); and some of the Ashtamangala, the Eight Auspicious Signs of Buddhism, like the conch shell and the wheel (dharmachakra), the largest 16.5cm x 12cm, the smallest 8cm x 6.2cm.