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

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quarters of four resting deer we once more find perforations, but limited to the ears (Pl. XVI no. 17).

Another type of bridle applique (also of about i000) must be added here, although the arrangement of curved lines and other decorations connect it with the following group. These are the very stylised compositions of the period after 1000 (Pl. XVII nos. 1 & z). Both are grouped around a small central knob and made up of interlaced scale-like ribbons in an S-shape. In one example (Pl. XVII no. 1) they end in bird-heads and tails, and in the other (Pl. XVI no. z) in four bird-heads of a vulture or eagle type. In each case the surface is treated in the same way. Thus different examples need not vary considerably as to period in spite of the diversity of their artistic treatment and of their subject matter.

1) Pendant plaques.

The link between the three following examples and the two preceding ones is the importance of the round knob in all five pieces. With the larger knob the decoration is emphasised in one direction, presumably below it, thereby forming an ornament that justifies the title of this sub-heading.

Plate XVII no. 3 may have been created before 1000. Two animal-heads that have borrowed the horns of the ram and the beak of the bird,form wings at either side of the disk. A floral motive with a deep centre groove was perhaps inlayed. Plate XVII nos. 4 & 5 correspond from the point of view of date with Plate XVI nos. 16 & 17, but from the point of view of style with the preceding illustration. The bird on the first piece ends in a spiral and is connected with a four-petaled knob of geometric design. On the rather large disk of the second is an animal so indistinct as to be unrecognisable. Below are two bird-heads between which is a three-leaved palmette, the decoration of which gives it the appearance of a geometric rather than of a floral design.

There are also representations of wild animals in pendant-plaque form, the best of which go back to the T'ang period. This is the date we should like to give to Plate XVII no. 6, for the distinct drawing of the predominant tiger-head deserves a relatively early date. It surpasses Plate XV no. 3 with its strong plastic quality. In the jaws of the tiger is a C-shaped curve ending in bird-heads.

The animal decorated pendant-plaque develops independently and treats the representation of animal-bodies in a distinctive way. At the end of the millennium and even later the head joins a body which is seen from above. Plate XVII no. 7 shows us again one head with two bodies, but the modeling has disappeared and is replaced with a stylised design. Plate XVII no. 8 simplifies this type even more by emphasising the fore-legs of only one body of what appears to be a bear.

Pendant-plaques must be considered another specialty of the Chinese frontier, as they are not known in other sections of the circle of the Steppes.