National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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CHAPTER XLI
A DADO OF ANGELS
ON the morning of February 1st the clearing of the
circular passage was resumed as early as I could get the
men to leave their fires. It was soon ascertained that
the passage had been lighted by three windows, besides
the entrance passing through the completely destroyed
west side. The north and south windows were found to
be almost exactly orientated and to reach down to about
two feet eight inches from the floor. The fresco frieze or
dado decorating the wall segments between each pair of
windows, or between door and window, consisted of six
closely adjoining lunettes ; from the hollow of each there
rose the head and shoulders of a winged figure nearly life
size (Plate iv.). Below the row of lunettes, which were
about one and a half feet high, and ranged with their chord
or top line nearly four feet above the floor, there ran a broad
band of wave lines boldly painted in black, and suggestive
of the sea. This filled also the spandrels left between the
curving sides of the lunettes. Each of the latter measured
two feet two inches at the top, where a thick black line
separated this ` dado of angels ' from an upper fresco frieze
almost completely perished.
Owing to the damage which the enclosing circular wall
had suffered, little survived of the lower dado outside the
north - east and south - east segments. But the débris
accumulated in the latter soon proved to have protected
a considerable quantity of fragments of frescoed plaster
which had once decorated the higher wall faces. The
larger pieces among them were found leaning in closely
packed layers against the wall-portion still standing. The
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