2 cols.

Qur’an, Harar, Ethiopia, 1773, 123/5  by 8½ inches.

For 10/12

NEPALESE ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPTS AT SAM FOGG w/1 cut requested

ak/gs set 10/4 #714759

 

LONDON — Nepalese manuscript illumination will be the focus of an exhibition presented by Sam Fogg from November 1 to 16, staged to coincide with Asian Art in London, November 1–9. “Paintings on Paper: Nepalese Illustrated Manuscripts” will include more than 30 works, dating from the Twelfth through the Nineteenth Century.

Nepalese illustrated manuscripts constitute the oldest sources for painting in the Himalayas and furnish the earliest example of any illustrated manuscript from South Asia. It was in Nepalese manuscripts that the Hindu Tantric tradition found its fullest and most colorful artistic expression.

Tantra, the quest to channel divine energy through ritual and contemplation, was part of mainstream Buddhism and Hinduism in Nepal. Whereas painting on such media as cloth, known as paubhas, are almost entirely devoted to Buddhist subjects, Nepalese illustrated manuscripts, with their bold paintings of ferocious and cosmic deities, mandalas and yantras, are a unique source for Hindu Tantric iconography.

The oldest manuscript in the show is an extremely early Hindu Tantric text, belonging to the Kaula sect that sought refuge in Nepal from the Ghaznavid Muslim invasions of North India in the Eleventh Century.

The “Pancaraksa,” the “Five Protective Hymns,” was one of the most frequently copied Buddhist texts in Nepal. A palm leaf “Pancaraksa” manuscript in the exhibition, dated 1397, contains all five of the original paintings. The goddesses are richly bejeweled and set within ornamental aureoles and the paintings have a freshness and vitality for which Nepali artists were so prized.

Tantric Shaivism was the inspiration for some of the most visually arresting concertina manuscripts in the exhibition. The worship of Shiva in the Kathmandu Valley goes back to the Fifth Century, when the Shaivite complex at Pasupatinath outside Kathmandu was founded. A Nineteenth Century Tantric visualization manual contains a magnificent drawing of Bhairava that stretches over four folios and has been splattered with paint to give the appearance of bloodstains.

Hinduism and Buddhism frequently overlapped in Nepal, particularly in the sphere of shared Tantric practices. A huge “thyasaphu,” dated 1755, illustrates a panoply of Hindu, Buddhist and local gods and goddesses. Alongside a double-page illustration of Bhairava, surrounded by macabre miniature dancing skeletons, are illustrations of Hindu gods such as Ganapati, Sarasvati and Uma-Mahesvara, as well as Buddhist ones including Mahakala, Vajrayogini and Buddha.

Sam Fogg is at 15d Clifford Street. For information, www.samfogg.com or 44 (0) 20 7534 2100.