A PAIR OF WOOD AND POLYCHROME DURGA MAHISHASURAMARDINI BOOK COVERS NEPAL, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY |

depicting ten deities from the Mahishasuramardini Durga cycle on both inner faces, each multi-armed goddess within a shrine supported by lions, a kirtimukha torana above and pillars topped by yantra

Compare a Nepalese painted wood book cover depicting five forms of Durga Mahishasuramardini in Günter Grönbold, Tibetische Buchdeckel, München, 1991, p. 33, cat. no. 5; the painted covers of a Nepalese Devimahatmya manuscript in the Jucker Collection, Sotheby’s New York, March 28 2006, lot 18; and similar covers in Pratapaditya Pal, The Arts of Nepal: Volume Two: Painting, Leiden, 1978, pl. 62.