国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

PLATE XXIX

PAINTINGS FROM BEZEKLIK

Bez. xiii. C

T is unfortunate that so little remains of this very interesting painting, and that

the surviving part is so extensively damaged. The decorative treatment of the

face of the figure of the Buddha, while retaining the traditional characteristics

of kindliness blended with authority, is carried to an extreme of stylization, more

particularly in the drawing of the lips and the fantastic treatment of moustache

and `imperial'. The boldly arched eyebrows, the parallel folds of the upper eye-

lids, and the gentle curve of the nose help, by contrast, to give importance to the

sharp narrow slits of eyes with their lazy but calculating expression. Unlike most

of the Bezeklik faces, the lines of the eyebrows do not join that of the nose; and

the inner ends of the eyebrows do not meet. The mouth is closed, and the artist

seems to have delighted in drawing its graceful curves and those of the rippling

moustache. The small part remaining of hand and wrist, in the pose of reassurance

(abhaya-mudrii), shows grace and accuracy of drawing, and is less out of proportion

to the size of the head than usual. It will be noticed that considerable use is made

of double lines. The explanation of this is that at some period it became the prac-

tice with artists in Turfán to give sparkle and animation to their work by the intro-

duction of `high lights', applied in thin lines of white, generally close alongside

the contour lines of red, blue, or black. The white used in some cases was probably

a lead preparation, imported from China; and in course of time the white lines

became grey or black through oxidization, and so the double lines appear. In this

and the two adjoining heads the whites of the eyes have, from the same cause,

turned to dark grey.

Hair, eyebrows, moustache, and `imperial' are blue. The flesh, now discoloured

by oxidation, was pale, almost white. On the left, beside the cheek, are traces of a

green nimbus.

The intonaco of this fragment is peculiar in having a layer of fine-grain, tough and

flexible, dark red clay below a coarser surface layer of the usual grey fibrous mud.

These two different textures can be seen in the reproduction beside the cheek and

to the left of the hand.

Bez. xiii. D. a

Head andP art of the body of a monk with hands in anjali pose; all badly

IOI