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0483 Serindia : vol.2
Serindia : vol.2 / Page 483 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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Sec. ii] LIST OF PAINTIN(S, TEXTILES, ETC., FROM CHIEN-FO-TUNG 981

decorative but somewhat lifeless Ch. xxviii. oo6 corresponds to fragmentary Paradise Ch. 002 r 6, both unique amongst other representations of these subjects.

Ch. 00223. For treatment of central fig. see above. Avalok. here single-headed, with slightly oblique eyes and brown hair. Discs of Sun and Moon retain imperfect figs. of phoenix, and of tree, frog, hare, and mortar. Amongst attendants Bodhisattvas of Sun and Moon are missing, but Nagar, Irajrapdmis, Nymph, and Sage, four armed Lokapâlas, and six unparticularized -Bodhisattvas are found, with signs of other Bodhisattvas along broken lower end.

Nägas wear species of Bodhisattva dress, with rolled-up breeches, and have no sign of serpent origin ; Lokapalas are of semi-monstrous type and sit with legs half unlocked holding swords upright; Nymph wears dancer's dress with red coif-like head-dress as in Ch. 00105 ; impersonal Bodhisattvas wear dress of ' Indian ' Bodhisattva type (see *Ch. lv. 0014), or dancer's dress. Colouring orig. chiefly crimson, green, blue, and ' bronze ' colour on dull green background, but mostly lost ; workmanship mediocre. 5' 4" X 3' 9" (without border).

Ch. 00224. Dated silk painting with Chin. inscr., representing Bkatsajyaguru (?) with Bodhisattvas and donors. Date given in inscr. A.D. 939. Made of one breadth of silk (2' or); border lost and painting broken, but colours fresh.

Bhaisajyaguru (for identification cf. Petrucci, Appendix E, III. vi) sits in middle under canopy, behind altar, with Samantabhadra and Mafiju§ri on either side. Treatment of figs. and accessories as in large Paradise pictures (see *Ch. lii. 003) ; Bodhisattvas of ' Chinese Buddhist ', not Indian ', type. Buddha has R. hand in vitarka-mudrd, L. holding alms-bowl ; conventional shading of flesh somewhat exaggerated. Bodhisattvas evidently both had hands in adoration, but face and hands of one destroyed. Colouring crimson, orange, slate, and green on light background ; with blue, white, etc., on haloes and vesicas ; but almost entirely gone from latter. Bodhisattvas' flesh, and details of streamers and jewels, show no sign of colour, and were perhaps never finished. Workmanship comparatively rough, and drawing careless ; e.g. altar vessels drawn quite off edge of altar.

Donors man and woman kneeling, resp. on R. and L. of dedicatory inscr. at bottom ; man attended by two boys (one evidently intended for small child), woman by girl. Attendants all stand, older boy carrying long-handled fan, younger fly-whisk ; girl also clasps in her arms what may be a fan. The dress of two principals same as in *Ch. 00102, etc. ; but the woman's sleeves narrower, and her head-dress of moderate size. The attendants' dress is like theirs, but their hair different ; that of girl and older boy done flat across top of head, and tied with red ribbon at each side into ball from which short lock escapes outward ; that of smaller boy cut short round neck and adorned on top with red bow.

Inscr. consists of dedicatory inscr., 12 11. fragmentary but clearly legible so far as preserved, and one 1. by each of three sacred figs. 2' 5" X 2' 0k'.

Ch. 00225. Remains of silk painting with Chin. inscr., representing Ksiligat-Ma as Patron of Travellers and Protector of Souls in Hell, with donors ; but drawing and colour practically obliterated and inscr. illegible. Figs. still traceable : part of K. seated on rock (?) with beggar's staff and red head-shawl ; man and woman donor, four Judges, priest, and white lion, and group of condemned souls and looking-glass ; all as in *Ch. 0021. Upper half lost. At bottom, two men and three women donors, standing ; dress as in *Ch. 00102; and red silk border. Inscription attached to all figs. in picture. 3' 6" (incomplete) x 2' I'.

Ch. 00226. Illuminated Pôthi leaf, showing Buddha in centre seated on lotus under flowering trees ; both hands held up at breast, palms out. On his L., under another tree, stands Bodhisattva with hands in adoration, with monk again behind him ; at end three-legged stand carrying seven flaming jewels (?). These are small circular objects, surrounded by oval flames, blue, red, or green, and piled one upon another. On Buddha's R. stands another monk under a tree, and behind him a third kneeling on mat. B.'s flesh gilded ; his red under-robe covered with gilt spots ; hair black. Priests wear yellow robes barred with red ; their hair black and short. Good condition. z' 2" x 3k". Pl. XCIV.

Ch. 00227. Triangular tab of figured silk, prob. from valance Ch. 00278, where others of the same are found. Woven in satin twill, thick but supple. Pattern : six-petalled rosettes 2" in diam. set out in rows; the spacing in each row alternating with the spacing in the rows above and below, and the rosettes in each joined by six-leaved stems set diagonally and thus forming a lattice-work. Lozenges thus produced are filled by pair of small trefoils springing from the rosettes on either side, and small lozenge-shaped rosettes above and below. Ground dark blue ; rosettes shaded pink with white outlines, the large having also dark blue centres containing an inner whorl of small petals in blue and white, and dark blue heart-shapes at the base of the outer petals ; leaves and trefoils pale green ; all somewhat faded. H. 4-", base of triangle z 1". Pl. CVI.

Ch. 00228. Misc. cuttings of silk brocade, woven with ground of well-marked twill with bright red warp and weft. Face of material formed chiefly by warp, which is of fine stiffened yarn; back by soft weft, which is broader and untwisted. Frs. preserved show two varieties of inwoven circular ' spot ', one made of three phoenixes of the cock-pheasant type whirling in a circle with heads to centre ; the other of three pointed leaves arranged in the same way.

Spots woven in twill with bright yellow silk, introduced only to form spot and cut short behind as in Ch. 0065. Twill of spot runs at right angles to that of fabric ; arrangement of spots not recoverable. For other examples of this purely Chinese type of pattern, see the list under Ch. 00179, and for other true brocades under Ch. 0065 ; also above, pp. 905 sq. Gr. length 9". Pl. CVI.

Ch. 00229. Fr. of silk brocade, thick and soft ; woven in twill with bright red warp and weft like the preceding, and