National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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462 A DADO OF ANGELS
CH. }CLI
preservation of them was manifestly due to their having
slid down at a time when sufficient débris from the vault-.
ing had already accumulated below to stop the fall of the
gradually loosened fresco pieces. Thus in one place the
dado was at first completely hidden behind three successive
layers of frescoed stucco. It was reasonable to assume
that the innermost piece was the first to be stopped in its
fall, and thus to have originally belonged to the frieze
nearest the dado.
To remove any of these pieces of painted stucco, some
several feet large and all very brittle, was an exceedingly
delicate task. The stucco backing consisted of nothing
but very friable clay, mixed with short straw of cut reeds,
but not sufficiently to give it coherence or elasticity. No-
where did it show a thickness of more than half an inch.
When touched without the greatest care it was apt to
break away at the edges. There was a very thin facing of
finer clay to receive the painting, but it had no admixture
of fibres, as often found in later fresco backing, and its
greater firmness seemed only to increase the liability to
cracks when once removed from the wall surface. There
was the risk, too, of losing sight of the connection between
fragments which had fallen close together, and might form
parts of the same composition. So it was essential to
secure as exact a record as possible of the condition and
place in which these superimposed fragments of fine wall
painting were found before attempting their separation and
rescue.
Detailed descriptive notes and photography were the
means available ; but both offered difficulties of their own.
All day it was bitterly cold, and icy gusts from the north
soon benumbed my hands as I kept crouching in cramped
positions, busy with endless measuring and scribbling of
pencilled notes. These had then in the evening to be
worked out and transferred in ink to my diary under the
shelter of my tent. Photographic work was scarcely less
trying. The whole width of the circular passage was only
four feet eight inches, and the consequent want of space
necessitated extraordinary positions for the camera, and
still more troublesome twistings for myself if a sufficiently
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