The fragment of a large paper painting (Ch. 00373) reproduced here on
the scale of three-fourths is of interest as it represents somewhat
rare details in skilful execution, and also on account of its unusual
technique. The picture, of which another fragment survives, has been
drawn upon a fine ground laid over smooth buff paper. The colours
delicately painted over this are bright and particularly pleasing by
their softness, and I regret that their reproduction had to be forgone.
The execution is more finished than that of any of the other paper
paintings from Ch‘ien-fo-tung. Of the subject of the whole painting
it is impossible to say more than that it probably represented the
‘Maṇḍala’ of a Buddha or Bodhisattva.
Our fragment shows on the left, against a background of large-leaved
flowering trees, a demon of dark blue body and limbs holding up with
his hands a naked infant who leans towards him smiling and with arms
stretched out. The infant’s form and features are exquisitely drawn
with fluent lines expressive of baby-like plumpness and shaded in pink
and white. He has black hair and a red trefoil mark on his forehead.
The reddish-pink face of the demon bears a cleverly conveyed tender
expression, which contrasts with his fierce features and shock of red
and green hair. We have already met with the figure of a similar demon
holding an infant in the group attending the Bodhisattvas on the right
in Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise as shown by Plate I, and another is found
among Vaiśravaṇa’s attendants in a woodcut from Ch‘ien-fo-tung.[96]
On the right is seen a many-tiered umbrella hung with streamers and
tasselled chains, as found often over the chief Bodhisattvas in large
Paradise paintings (see Plate I). In the middle of the bottom portion
of the fragment appears the upper part of the halo, topknot, and tiara
of a Bodhisattva. Above the central ornament of the tiara is seen the
head of a white stag with antlers painted in silver.