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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Sec.   RECOVERY AND STUDY OF THE PAINTINGS   835

To see his materials rescued and made available again for the completion of a cherished task was the last satisfaction which Fate would grant to this enthusiastic worker. On my way through Paris in May, 1916, I had found him still full of apparent vigour and eagerly bent upon carrying through his task. But some months later he began to suffer from an internal ailment, and though in the autumn he was still strong enough to lend most willing help towards the preparation of the portfolio, The Thousand Buddhas, by which I hoped to make select specimens of paintings from the collection accessible to students of Far-Eastern art in adequate reproductions, his condition became serious enough to necessitate a grave operation in February, 1917. This he overcame with apparent success, only to succumb a week later by a cruel blow of Fate to diphtheritis contracted in the hospital.

How great the loss is which manifold researches bearing on the art and civilization of the Far East have suffered through M. Petrucci's death, still young in years and full of promise for the future, has been eloquently recorded by others more competent than myself.11 Here it is my part merely to explain the endeavour made with the kind co-operation of common friends to preserve as much as possible of M. Petrucci's work and thus to render the gap left in the present publication less conspicuous. The two chapters which he had actually written out, as above mentioned, on the votive inscriptions and on the large ` Mandala compositions have been carefully prepared for printing by M. Chavannes with the assistance of MM. Foucher and Sylvain Lévi. Mr. A. D. Waley, of the British Museum, also lent valuable help by the verification of Chinese inscriptions in the originals. The abundant materials M. Petrucci had prepared for the identification of the numerous legendary scenes and other sacred subjects represented in a dozen or so of the large paintings, and for the elucidation of the inscriptions concerning them, were to be utilized by M. Chavannes in a separate volume which he proposed to publish under M. Petrucci's name and his own in the Mémoires concernant l'Asie orientale of the Académie des Inscriptions. [Since this was written, M. Chavannes has, alas, passed away too, and it remains doubtful how much of the materials he had prepared for a tribute to the memory of his devoted pupil and friend can be preserved by publication.] In addition the present work is to benefit by the expert help of Mr. Binyon, who has kindly undertaken to replace the concluding chapter of M. Petrucci's programme by a contribution dealing with the position occupied by our paintings in the evolution of Buddhist Art in the Far East and with the varied influences reflected in them from the side of India, Central Asia, and Tibet.12

However great is the value which may justly be claimed for all these materials, it is clear that Descriptive they leave me with a heavier obligation in regard to this portion of my Report than I anticipated list

while hoping for the realization of M. Petrucci's programme. That I am able to meet to some extent this changed situation I owe mainly to preceding safeguards. In the interest of future and

more detailed researches by other scholars I had taken care in 1911 to use as many plates as

available means would allow for the reproduction of characteristic specimens of the different classes of paintings, drawings, and woodcuts. For the same reason I took special care to secure a sufficiently detailed description of all pictorial materials in order to provide needful guidance also as regards the many paintings, etc., that had to be left without illustrations. This Descriptive List, reproduced below in Chap. XXV, Section ii, has been prepared mainly by the hand of Miss Lorimer, whose devoted help over this task I cannot value too highly. In it has been embodied also much useful

Last help of M. Petrucci.

Endeavour to replace lost help.

" Cf. the notices devoted to the memory of M. Petrucci's life and work in learned periodicals, e.g. T'oung-pao, 1917, p. 391.

12 Cf. below, Appendix E, Iv. A very illuminating if succinct review of these questions; so important for the history of the development of Chinese pictorial art in general, was furnished by Mr. Binyon in 1914 in the introductory notes he wrote

for section i of the Guide to the portions of my collections then temporarily exhibited in the British Museum ; see Guide to an exhibition of paintings, manuscripts and other archceological objects collected by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan (Printed by order of the Trustees), 1914, pp. 5 sqq. [See now also his Introductory Essay to The Thousand Buddhas.]

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