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0700 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / Page 700 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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458   ANCIENT TEMPLES OF MIRAN CH. XL

I rapidly convinced myself that the approach to purely

classical design and colouring was closer in these frescoes

than in any work of ancient pictorial art I had seen so far,

whether north or south of the Kun-lun. Much in the

vivacious look of the large, fully opened eyes, in the

expression of the small dimpled lips and the slightly

aquiline nose, brought back to my mind those beautiful

portrait heads of Egyptian Greek girls and youths which

I remembered having seen long years before in the Graf

collection on panels from Fayûm mummies of the Ptolemaic

and Roman periods. Perhaps the faint trace of Semitic

influence recognizable in the features presented by one

or other of the frescoes helped to suggest this linking.

But then, again, there was a note of the quatrocento in

the lively directness of gaze and pose, the simple ease of

the outlines, conspicuous even in the graceful upward

curve of the short fluttering wings. One thing was quite

certain at the first glance : work of such excellence could

not possibly have originated in the time of Tibetan

occupation nor in the period of Chinese rule immediately

preceding it. As well might we look for the decorators of

Pompeian villas among those who ministered to Theodoric's

Goths.

I was still wondering how to account for the distinctly

classical style in the representation of these Cherubim and

the purport of . this apparent loan from early Christian

iconography, when the discovery of a ` Khat,' announced by

a shout from the men, supplied definite palaeographic

evidence for the dating. From the rubble of broken mud-

bricks and plaster filling the passage on the south there

emerged in succession three large pieces of fine coloured

silk, evidently belonging to what had once been a votive

flag or streamer, and each bearing a few short lines inscribed

in Kharoshthi. These pieces measured about twenty-two

inches in length, with a width of six to eight inches. Other

fragments of the same excellently woven silk turned up

later, but without writing. In all the material showed a

ground colour of delicate cream, with numerous narrow

stripes in harmonizing tints of buff, brown, and purple.

The Kharoshthi inscriptions on these pieces and on a