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| 0217 |
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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from the elongated slanting eyes which all figures painted
later in Central Asia and the Far East display. Equally sig-
nificant is the drapery, the peculiar pose of the curving
fingers emerging as it were from a toga, etc. As regards
methods of technique a most striking testimony is supplied
by the regular employment of 'light and shade' wherever
flesh is painted in these frescoes. The use of chiaroscuro,
so well known to classical art, has never before been ob-
served in the old pictorial work of India, Central Asia or
the Far East.
Varied and instructive as the surviving fragments of those
frescoed friezes are, it is the fine winged-angel figures of the
dado which have from the first appealed to me most. The
seven of them which had survived, have all been brought
safely away and are now divided between the British Museum
and my collection at New Delhi. While in all externals the
aim manifestly is at a homogeneous effect befitting a
heavenly fraternity, a strong individual element is cleverly
introduced in the faces. Such details as the varied expres-
sion in the eyes, the pose of the head, etc., can be adequately
studied only in the originals or in the full reproductions
fortunately available in my Serindia. But I may at least
touch upon one indication of the skill with which the painter
decorators at Miran adapted designs, borrowed from the
West and, no doubt, often used, to peculiar structural con-
ditions. Care was taken so to fit the pose of the winged busts
in the dado to the position they occupy low down on the
wall of the circular passage that their raised gaze may just
catch the eyes of the worshipper as he performs the cere-
monial circumambulation of the Stupa.
Taking into account certain youthful winged forms met
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571
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578
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