A COLOURS ON CANVAS GLUED ON A WOODEN DOOR PAINTING WITH DAKINITibet, 18th-19th centuryThe painting - made in rich polychromy on a black background - depicts the deity with an angry face and a red body, in the right hand a scepter with a skull as a finial, sitting in an acrobatic position on the back of a animal, above the eviscerated remains of tigers and men, below mountains and sea waves.170 x 87 cmProvenance: Italian private collection. The dakini are deities originally belonging to the Hindu pantheon, which later became part of the Buddhist sphere. They are female spirits endowed with the power to evoke movement in the space, usually - as in this case - represented by the black color with which the shunyata, absolute emptiness, is identified.