Yao Taoist Shaman's Scroll, Framed

A crane at his shoulder, and a halo the color of fire.

This Taoist shaman's scroll, now framed, is by the Yao people of China, 19th century, in pigment on paper. Yao communities in southern China and neighboring lands practiced a form of Taoism, and their priests used sets of painted scrolls in ordinations and other rites, hanging the deities around the ritual space. A standing figure with a long mustache wears a black robe scattered with red spiked roundels. Three dark spirals run across the top, inside a border of vines. The image is 38 inches high.

He looks out from one side, attentive and entirely composed.