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

at the ankles are the fanciful tops of what appear to be soft leather boots, bound

round the ankle by green straps. The indication of the kneecap is a concession to

convention, disregarding anatomical accuracy.

I

Bez. v. Flooring

In several shrines a part of the floor of the cella, usually before the base of

the altar or cult figure, was painted. To protect the surface from destruction

by the abrading action of the bare feet of persons approaching, the surface was

treated with some kind of resistant medium, such as wax or varnish. Such portions

have been erroneously described by some archaeologists as boon fresco. Actually the

painting is tempera.

The fragment here represented is of this kind. Its exact position in the shrine

has, unfortunately, not been recorded.

Badly broken and damaged, probably by the impact of roughly shod infidel feet,

and discoloured by the protective varnish, full recognition of the subject is ren-

dered impossible. It represents a tank of agitated water swirling about various

types of sacred jewels (cíntămaii), of which two, laminated, float buoy-like in the

lower right corner. Above, is the nude infantile figure of a plump boy, vigorously

disporting himself. He seems to plunge forward with right arm outstretched, hold-

ing in his hand a bunch of flowers. His left arm, akimbo, may be grasping an end

of a narrow stole, blown by the breeze into an arching loop above his head. His

features are Mongolian and his head is clean-shaven, save for reserved black tufts

of which two are visible. At his breast he wears a jewelled carcanet.

Bez. iii. Ceiling and friezes

From the corridor at the back of the shrine. The scheme of decoration of the

ceiling consists of a repeating circular rosette of elaborate design, having a pink

lotus at the centre. Complete rosettes occur along the centre line of the ceiling,

and between them, in zigzag order, half-rosettes, one on each side, their diameters

coinciding with the edges of the ceiling. Simple scrolls of Chinese character

cover the background between the circles.

The two friezes, representing festooned drapery and jewels hanging from a

narrow vandyked and pleated border, are from the top of the walls supporting the

ceiling, and resemble those in plates xi' and xx.

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