Album Leaves from a Tantric Folio (Two-Sided)

Leaves from an artist's sketchbook depicting Hindu Tantric deities such as Bhairava, Durga and Kali. This Nepalese artist's manual is constructed of accordion-folded paper leaves, and contains drawing made with a pen in sooty black ink. The figures are oriented so that two or more leaves can be unfolded to form a continuous composition of two or three pages. Almost all the images are of Hindu deities (one composition bears a Buddha image), arranged in sets, so if an artist is called on to reproduce relatively obscure iconography, these drawings could act as an aide-memoire. The Rubin Museum of Art has seven leaves in all, with drawing on both sides.