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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Sec. y]   EXCAVATION OF THE TEMPLE M. v   515

was meant for that of an eagle, as in the classical griffin. But I may note that in the bronze figurine of a similar monster now in the British Museum, which Sir Hercules Read has described in a recent publication and to which he was good enough to call my attention,b a body closely resembling that in our frieze is combined with a head which is altogether fantastic and certainly not of a bird. This figurine is said to have been found near the Helmand River, a region where, as mater alia my explorations of 1915 have shown, the influence of Hellenistic art made itself strongly felt."

The ground colour of the upper frieze was a bright Pompeian red, showing up well the mauve-coloured body of the griffin with its wings of dark bluish-grey and the inner ray of its feathers in terra-cotta. Besides the monster, to the left, there:appeared the remains of a carefully-drawn acanthus ornament in green, near which was a hanging palmette, and below a large fruit-like object in dark reddish-brown. Remains of a similar acanthus leaf were traceable higher up to the right of the human figure. Small single rosettes and leaves were found scattered over the frieze without any apparent purpose except for filling blank spaces, in a fashion which seems to be also well known to the late Hellenistic art of the Near East.

Below this frieze, and separated from it by a triple band in white, black, and pale blue, altogether about eight inches wide, ran the dado already referred to, extending down to the floor. It was divided into lunettes measuring about 2 feet 9 inches along the top line. One of these, M. v. 004, seen in Fig. 133, was nearly intact, but so badly cracked that the further damage it suffered on removal was in no war surprising. Nevertheless, enough has survived of the winged figure contained in it, and of the festoon-like band forming the lunette, to permit of the reproduction in Plate xLV and of the detailed description in the list below. Of the similar figure, M. v. 004, ill the lunette adjoining on the left, only portions of the wings could be recovered. The head was here too much broken to survive removal, but I noted that it was of a slightly different type and had its hair dressed in the peculiar double-leafed tuft previously observed on the heads of the ` angels.' in M. in dado. I have already had occasion to refer to the broad festoon-like black band, about seven inches wide and effectively decorated with a bold cloud scroll in red and white, which formed the lunettes.6 It showed clearly how this decorative scheme was derived from the festoon design so frequent in the relievo friezes of Gandhâra sculpture. The background beneath the festoon was yellow, and decorated with wave lines in red and black. As fragments of the same background were found still in situ, to a maximum height of six inches, in different places along the foot of the passage wall facing south and of that on the east and north sides, it could safely be concluded that the whole of the inner walls of the square enclosing passage had once been painted in a similar fashion.

As a detailed description of the panel M. v. 004 is given in the list below, it will suffice here to call attention to the essential points in which the lunette and the winged figure represented in it differ from the dado of M. ni. As regards the lunette we may note that it is distinctly flatter. Its field of bright red may suit the bolder style of painting, but it also shows that the suggestion of the sky, from which the ` angels of M. 111 seem so appropriately to rise, had passed from the painter's purview. Though the winged figure rising with head and shoulders from the lunette is closely akin in type and pose to the ' angels' of M. 1u, yet it shows distinct inferiority in design and technique.

5 See Essays and Studies presented to William Ridgeway,   Les documents de la Mission Chravannes, in Revue de l'Univer-

1913, p. 261.   sit/ de Bruxelles, 1910, p. 507, note r. But I am unable at

a The winged lion of Hellenistic type seems to have made   present to refer to the publications reproducing those sculp-

his way eastwards far beyond M1rzn, as appears from the   tures.

description of two sculptured monsters found in Ho-nan and   ° Cf. above, p. 5to.
attributed approximately to the sixth century A.D.; cf. Petrucci;

3 u 2

Decorative floral motifs.

Winged figures of outer passage dado.

Painting of lunette and figure.