The Art of Chinese Landscape Painting

256 Pages·1967·29.48 MB·English

by  Anil de Silva-Vigier

THE ART OF CHIN£S
ART OF
LANDSCAP
THE
WORLD
PAINTIN
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THE ART OF CHINESE
LANDSCAPE PAINTING
Anil de Silva
42 colorplates, 56 monochromeplates, 31
line illustrations, map, and chronological
tables
In western China, on the great silk
road,liestheancientcityofTun-huang,
famous for its great Buddhist shrine,
consisting of no fewer than 469 caves
carved out of a sandy cliff. Founded
in the fourth centuryA. D., its wealth
of wall-paintings and other valuable
works of art was produced during
successivedynasties—theSui,theT'ang
and the Sung in particular—and right
up to the nineteenth-century, when it
first came to the noticeoftheWestern
world. FewpersonsoutsideChinahave
set eyes upon this extraordinary body
of paintings. Anil de Silva had the
good fortune to do so and to take
photographs of them in color, many
ofwhicharepublishedherefor thefirst
time. In preparing this study she has
nadtheassistanceofseveraldistinguish-
ed Sinologists, including Dr. Arthur
Waley and Dr. Joseph Needham.
She shows that Tun-huang was no
mereprovincial site, for itwhileserved
as intermediaryforWesterninfluences,
it also gave expression to the main-
stream of the Chinese art tradition,
providing a comprehensive analysis of
the development of style, themes and
techniques inChinese landscapepaint-
ing. TotheChinese,somesubjectssym-
bolize religious concepts and divine
beings others convey the deep respect
;
and love the Chinese have always felt
for the natural world—for mountains,
trees, water, dark clouds and falling
leaves, all expressing the underlying
philosophic principle of order, li. In
Tun-huang, we find "the breath of
the spirit that sings through the flam-
ing lacquers and Wei reliefs with a
poignant immediacy" that belongs
only to Chinese art.
CROWN PUBLISHERS, INC.
NEW
\fORK
BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
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Pi
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EWORLD
ARTOFTH1
NON-EUROPEAN CULTURES
THE HISTORICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL
AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUNDS

THE ART OF
CHINESE LANDSCAPE PAINTING
IN THE CAVES OF TUN-HUANG
ANIL DE SILVA
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOMINIQUE DARBOIS
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CROWN PUBLISHERS, INC., NEW YORK
—
Title-page: Fresco from Cave 323 at Tun-huang: detail. T'ang dynasty. The pagoda depicted re-
sembles one of the earliest wooden pagodas at Hokiji near Nara, Japan, which is square in plan
and is built in the Chinese T'ang style. Cf. p. 146.
All photographs ofthe Tun-huang Caves in this volume have been taken with the kind permission
ofthe Tun-huang Institute. Many ofthem are reproduced here for the first time in color.
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A/D/30C
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1964
GERMAN EDITION 1964 © HOLLE VERLAG G.M.B.H., BADEN-BADEN, GERMANY
ENGLISH TRANSLATION © 1967 BY HOLLE VERLAG, G.M.B.H., BADEN-BADEN, GERMANY
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 67-19591
PRINTED IN HOLLAND
CONTENTS
List ofcolour plates (6). List ofmonochrome plates (6). List offigures (7).
Acknowledgments
(7).
FOREWORD
9
INTRODUCTION
15
PRE-HAN ART
I. 33
THE HAN DYNASTY
II. (206 b.c.-a.d. 220) 53
THE THREE KINGDOMS AND THE SIX DYNASTIES
III.
(a.d. 220-589) 75
IV. THE SUI DYNASTY (a.d. 589-618) 105
V. THE T'ANG DYNASTY (a.d. 618-906) 133
THE SUNG DYNASTY
VI. (a.d. 960-1279) 181
CONCLUSIONS
202
APPENDIX
213
Map: Central Asia and the Silk Road (214-5). Chronological table (216).
List of caves (224). Bibliography (225). Index (229).
271
LIST OF COLOUR PLATES
Cave 323 3 Cave 323 '44, 145
Cave complex ofTun-huang 21 Cave 209 '49
Shell with hunting scene 46 Cave 217 155, J57
Polychrome painted funerary tile 49 Cave 45 158
Painted clay brick 64 Cave 205 166, 169
Cave 257 77, 79, 81 Cave 320 167
Cave 428 82,85 Cave 172 171
Cave 285 98,99 Cave 198 175
Cave 296 108, no Cave 112 176, 177
Cave 302 117, 118-9 Cave 196 178, 179
Cave 299 120-1 Cave 186 186
Cave 303 126 Cave 288 190
Cave 423 128-9 Cave 332 193
Apsara strewing flowers 132 Cave 61 '95, 197
Cave 103 137 Cave 55 198
Cave 321 139
LIST OF MONOCHROME PLATES
City gate at Tun-huang 7 above Cave 296 in
1
Ox-cart 17 below Cave 302 112
River-bed at Tun-huang 18 above Cave 301 113
Sand cliff 18 below Cave 420 114 above
Caves at Tun-huang: detail 27 Cave 419 114 below
Caves at Tun-huang: detail 28 Cave 419 123 above
Clay brick: detail 37 Cave 420 123 below
Assyrian hunting relief 38 Cave 419 124
Apsara 5i Country house of the poet Wang Wei:
Clay panel from tomb 52 painting 141
Bronze vase, so-called 'hunting bronze' 57 Cave 103 142
Frescoes in a tomb: details 58-59 Cave 323 151
Detail ofbronze vase on p. 57 60 Cave 209 152
Scroll: detail 73 Cave 2 161
1
Cave 285 74 Cave 45 162-3, l64
Cave 249 87,88 Cave 369 173
Cave 428 93 above Cave 1 1 174
Panel in relief 93 below Cave 32 183
Cave 285 94-95 Horizontal scroll: detail 184
Cave 428 96 Cave 61 205
Cave 299 IOI Cave 55 206, 207
Tripod with lid 102 Rubbing from stamped brick 208