This well-preserved large silk painting (Ch. lv. 0023), reproduced
here on a scale of two-fifths, offers special interest.[37] It is
the oldest exactly dated painting in the Collection, the dedicatory
inscription below indicating the year corresponding to A.D. 864. It
also combines in a curious fashion hieratic conventions of Indian
origin, such as prevail in the row of four Avalokiteśvara figures
ranged stiffly side by side in the upper half, with the more Chinese
and more animate treatment of others in the lower half. There the
Bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī are represented in procession
advancing towards each other on lotus seats carried by their respective
‘Vāhanas’, the white elephant with six tusks and the lion, and
accompanied by their attendants, just as we have already seen them in
the more sumptuous compositions of Plates III and IV. Samantabhadra
has his hands raised in the _vitarka-mudrā_ and Mañjuśrī in the pose
of adoration. Their dress, ornaments, circular haloes, &c., as well
as their _cortèges_, here limited to two lesser Bodhisattvas carrying
three-tiered umbrellas and a dark-skinned Indian attendant leading
the divinity’s mount, all show very close agreement with the types
displayed in those large paintings. These conventions are shared also
by the single Bodhisattva figures in many fine silk banners of the
Collection,[38] and our dated picture proves them to have been already
fully established by the middle of the ninth century.
In contrast to these two Bodhisattvas, always easily identified,
only the short Chinese inscriptions by the side of the four
Avalokiteśvaras above can tell us which particular form of this most
popular Bodhisattva is to be recognized in each figure.[39] All are
practically alike in pose and dress except for some minor differences.
All carry a red or red and white lotus in one hand, and all, except the
Avalokiteśvara on the extreme left, a flask in the other. The dress
comprises a long reddish-pink under-robe girt round the waist and
reaching to the feet; a short tight upper skirt and a deep plastron
passing over breast and shoulders. On the upper arms are close-fitting
sleeves, half covered by armlets. Pink drapery hangs behind the
shoulders and a narrow stole of green and red passes round them; thence
it winds stiffly about the arms and ripples to the ground. The figure
of the Dhyāni-buddha Amitābha appears on the tiara.
In all the details just mentioned these Avalokiteśvaras attach
themselves to a class of Bodhisattva figures, largely represented
among our banners, which reproduce characteristic Indian conventions
in physical type, dress, pose, and flesh colouring with sufficient
closeness to deserve the general designation of ‘Indian’.[40] Their
juxtaposition with the more ‘Chinese’ Bodhisattvas in the lower half of
our painting is instructive as helping to bring out the distinctions of
the two types.
In the narrow panel below we see ranged on either side of the
dedicatory inscription the donors and their ladies. The Chinese
inscriptions attached to them acquaint us with their persons.[41] On
the right kneels the father attired as a monk with his three sons
kneeling in secular dress behind him. On the left are shown two nuns,
members of the family, and behind them two ladies, wives of two of the
sons. To the interest presented by the costumes of the secular figures
I have had already occasion to allude.[42] The fashion represented in
the dress and coiffure of the two ladies is particularly instructive
as affording indications for the approximate dating of other paintings
which show donatrix figures. The moderate width of the sleeves and
the absence of ornaments in the head-dress distinguish this fashion
of A.D. 864 very strikingly from that presented by the donatrices in
tenth-century pictures. On the other hand, we see on the men’s heads
the wide-brimmed black hats of the latter side by side with a stiff
black cap of a manifestly earlier type.