National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

4

period   y

eriod of about 300 years, there are certain mannerisms in physiognomy, pose,

and costume of the figures that invite critical consideration. To mention a few,

there is the disk-like face with inadequate features, badly drawn in a thin expres-

sionless line. With this goes the globose head with usually close-cropped hair,

long, thin, narrow-waisted body, and thin limbs. A typical but badly preserved

example is Kao.II.02 in plate xi. At Bezeklik, coiffure and head-dress are varied

and significant. Hands are distinguished by several characteristics; those of the

Mirán figures, south of the Taklamakán, a few centuries earlier than the paint-

ings of the north, are strong, with thumbs well separated from the fingers-

capable-looking Indian hands. In Turfán, however, the hands are slim, delicate,

and graceful, and have the thumbs either closed up to the fingers or strongly

abducted; and in the latter case, when the hands are folded in the attitude of prayer

or supplication, the thumbs are sharply erect, as in Har. B on the title-page.

The emphasis on the abducted position of the thumb is a noticeable feature in late

medieval art in Europe, as, for example, in the mosaics of S. Apollinare at

Ravenna and in the Anglo-Saxon Book of Life at Hyde Abbey, Winchester, and

other miniatures of the same period. In Turfán, under Chinese influence, the finger-

nails are long; otherwise they are trimmed very short. Feet are almost always

badly drawn and, if not bare, shod with sandals or shoes of more or less elaborate

fashion. In Bezeklik paintings the Buddha always wears sandals. Costumes are

either the loose draperies customary in India, and by their nature often closely re-

sembling those of classic Greece and Rome, or elaborately `tailored' garments con-

forming to fashions of the intruding communities. Rich materials figured with

Sasanian and Chinese patterns occur. Decorative Chinese lacquered leather armour

and much elaborate millinery adorn some of the donors and celestial attendants.

Completely nude figures are very seldom represented, and then mostly infantile,

such as are found associated with the goddess Háriti (plate iv) or the boys dis-

porting in the water (Bez. v, flooring, plate xxii). Two examples of the nude

female figure are that of the tortured woman (Kao. III. 021, plate xi) (and even

she is furnished with an exiguous concession to decorum) and the Aphrodite-like

figure standing in a tank, found in a wall-painting at Dandán-oilik (reproduced in

plate xxxii), and here also, doubtless in deference to ecclesiastical scruples, an

ineffectual grape-leaf serves as a token of propriety.

The standing Buddha figures in the Bezeklik paintings are very badly propor-

tioned,   yp

tioned, being too short, a fault common, although not general, in Gandhára sculp-

XXVI