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| 0157 |
Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
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Standing quite by itself at Astāna and of particular interest is the design of the figured silk Western
in the face-cover vii. 1. 06 (Pl. LXXX). It consists of a lozenge lattice pattern, formed by bands lattice
of heart-shaped leaves, and of an eight-pointed star in the field of each lozenge, containing a flower with heart
with four heart-shaped petals. The general design as well as the decorative details show unmistak- shapes.
ably close resemblance to those found on the one hand in a late Hellenistic fabric from Antinoe at
Berlin, and on the other in a Byzantine silk at Liège which Professor von Falke dates approximately
from the first half of the seventh century.²³ I believe we may safely recognize in this interesting
Turfān relic an import from the silk industry of the Near East. The pieces of a ' Sasanian ' fabric
used in the curious patchwork ix. 2. 019 (Pl. LXXVII) are too small to permit a determination of
its special character.
We now turn to a small but distinctly instructive group of silks which illustrate the influence Western
exercised by Western designs upon what unmistakably is the work of Chinese weavers. First designs in
among them may be noted two fabrics in which there is clear evidence of Chinese manufacture, Chinese
not only in the style of treatment, but also in the peculiar ' warp-rib ' weave. We have previously stuffs.
noticed this distinctive technique as characteristic of all the oldest Chinese silk textiles, whether
from the grave-pits of Lou-lan or the Limes of Tun-huang.²⁴ That we should find some specimens
of it surviving in the Astāna tombs cannot cause surprise, since we find it also represented in at
least one relic preserved in the Tun-huang hoard for the deposit of which the terminus ad quem is
about four centuries later.²⁵ The design of the fabric, pieces of which have been sewn together in
ix. 3. 02 (Pl. LXXX) to form what looks like a cushion cover, shows two rows of medallions of
' Sasanian ' type one above the other, with the usual pearl border. Within both there are seen
pairs of winged horses, treated in an animated style recalling the horses which appear in silks
preserved at Nara,²⁶ but in varying poses. The floral motif used as base in both rows of medallions
is also Chinese, and resembles that found in a corresponding position in a printed Chinese silk from
Ch'ien-fo-tung, imitating a ' Sasanian ' design.²⁷ In the other ' warp-rib ' fabric, i. 5. b. 01
(Pl. LXXIX), a much-decayed face-cover, we see parts of ' Sasanian ' medallions which are
filled with confronting swans on either side of a flowering tree and with subsidiary flower shapes.
A flying crane appears in the spandrel. Chinese feeling pervades the design notwithstanding
its stiff ' Sasanian ' setting.
In the better preserved fragment v. 2. 01 (Pl. LXXVIII, LXXXI), also a face-cover, the Other 'Sino-
arrangement of the two oval medallions, one placed above the other, each with an outer pearl Sasanian'
border and an inner of fleur-de-lis scrolls, is obviously borrowed from ' Sasanian ' models. But patterns.
the pairs of confronting animals, two in each, as well as the foliate scrolls at the base, are treated
with Chinese freedom. The cockatrices in the upper medallion closely resemble those found in
silks from Nara,²⁸ while what remains of the lower one shows a finely designed winged lion. Pairs
of running deer and of sheep-like animals appear in the spandrels. It is curious to note that the
Chinese weaver has preserved something of the ' stepped ' outlines of the Western models of this
design. The weave is characterized by Mr. Andrews as a transition from ' warp-rib ' to twill.
Among the remaining specimens of this ' Sino-Sasanian ' group the fragment of a face-cover,
i. 3. a. 01 (Pl. LXXIX), well preserved in its colours, is of particular interest, because the geometri-
cally treated flower ornament filling the spandrel between the medallions is almost identical in design
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