National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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458 ANCIENT TEMPLES OF MIRAN CH. XL
I rapidly convinced myself that the approach to purely
classical design and colouring was closer in these frescoes
than in any work of ancient pictorial art I had seen so far,
whether north or south of the Kun-lun. Much in the
vivacious look of the large, fully opened eyes, in the
expression of the small dimpled lips and the slightly
aquiline nose, brought back to my mind those beautiful
portrait heads of Egyptian Greek girls and youths which
I remembered having seen long years before in the Graf
collection on panels from Fayûm mummies of the Ptolemaic
and Roman periods. Perhaps the faint trace of Semitic
influence recognizable in the features presented by one
or other of the frescoes helped to suggest this linking.
But then, again, there was a note of the quatrocento in
the lively directness of gaze and pose, the simple ease of
the outlines, conspicuous even in the graceful upward
curve of the short fluttering wings. One thing was quite
certain at the first glance : work of such excellence could
not possibly have originated in the time of Tibetan
occupation nor in the period of Chinese rule immediately
preceding it. As well might we look for the decorators of
Pompeian villas among those who ministered to Theodoric's
Goths.
I was still wondering how to account for the distinctly
classical style in the representation of these Cherubim and
the purport of . this apparent loan from early Christian
iconography, when the discovery of a ` Khat,' announced by
a shout from the men, supplied definite palaeographic
evidence for the dating. From the rubble of broken mud-
bricks and plaster filling the passage on the south there
emerged in succession three large pieces of fine coloured
silk, evidently belonging to what had once been a votive
flag or streamer, and each bearing a few short lines inscribed
in Kharoshthi. These pieces measured about twenty-two
inches in length, with a width of six to eight inches. Other
fragments of the same excellently woven silk turned up
later, but without writing. In all the material showed a
ground colour of delicate cream, with numerous narrow
stripes in harmonizing tints of buff, brown, and purple.
The Kharoshthi inscriptions on these pieces and on a
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