DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0170
CHINESE ART
The three heads in the upper row (i 99-201) show some more Hadda
types. The one to the left (199) might almost be from a French thir-
teenth-century Christ, and shows how immediately this new spiritual
conception of Buddhism found its c Gothic ’ formula, whereas it took
about 1000 years for Christianity to get to this point in the West. The
central head (200) shows already the beginning of the peculiarly
Buddhist conception of the spirit withdrawn into itself in a mood of
intense contemplative abstraction. Note, too, the long ears due to the
wearing of heavy ear-rings which became everywhere a fixed character
of Buddha. The right-hand head (201) is a vividly realistic portrait of
an Oriental—I suppose an Afghan type. It is certainly not Mongolian.
Of the two remaining heads that to the right (203) is almost a pure
Hellenistic portrait head of a philosopher, which here does duty for an
attendant on Buddha; but again with that slight change in the direction
of a greater psychological expressiveness. The other (202) shows already
a slight modification of the Greek physiognomy in an Oriental, I think
a Mongolian, direction. But how much it still keeps of the elegance, the
physical beauty, of the Greek notion of humanity.
The coloured stucco figures (204, 205) come from one of the oases of
Turkestan, and therefore make a longish stage in the journey of Greco-
Buddhist art towards China—and, as you see, they show a much further
departure from Hellenistic originals. The left-hand figure (204) with its
painted moustache is distinctly Iranian or Persian in influence, for this
phase of Central Asiatic art receives many influences from without.
Bactria itself was conquered more than once by Sassanian kings and
they brought with them an art which likewise sprang from Greco-
Roman origins but which they had already modified greatly, so that we
get another stream of Greco-Roman influence changed in a specific
manner by its sojourn in Persia. Yet another influence comes through
by way of India. It, too, derives from the Hellenistic centre in the
north-west of India, but it was modified in a quite different direction by
the Indian genius. And all these three currents mix in Turkestan and are
fused and modified by its Mongolian and Turkish inhabitants, as well
< 134 >
The three heads in the upper row (i 99-201) show some more Hadda
types. The one to the left (199) might almost be from a French thir-
teenth-century Christ, and shows how immediately this new spiritual
conception of Buddhism found its c Gothic ’ formula, whereas it took
about 1000 years for Christianity to get to this point in the West. The
central head (200) shows already the beginning of the peculiarly
Buddhist conception of the spirit withdrawn into itself in a mood of
intense contemplative abstraction. Note, too, the long ears due to the
wearing of heavy ear-rings which became everywhere a fixed character
of Buddha. The right-hand head (201) is a vividly realistic portrait of
an Oriental—I suppose an Afghan type. It is certainly not Mongolian.
Of the two remaining heads that to the right (203) is almost a pure
Hellenistic portrait head of a philosopher, which here does duty for an
attendant on Buddha; but again with that slight change in the direction
of a greater psychological expressiveness. The other (202) shows already
a slight modification of the Greek physiognomy in an Oriental, I think
a Mongolian, direction. But how much it still keeps of the elegance, the
physical beauty, of the Greek notion of humanity.
The coloured stucco figures (204, 205) come from one of the oases of
Turkestan, and therefore make a longish stage in the journey of Greco-
Buddhist art towards China—and, as you see, they show a much further
departure from Hellenistic originals. The left-hand figure (204) with its
painted moustache is distinctly Iranian or Persian in influence, for this
phase of Central Asiatic art receives many influences from without.
Bactria itself was conquered more than once by Sassanian kings and
they brought with them an art which likewise sprang from Greco-
Roman origins but which they had already modified greatly, so that we
get another stream of Greco-Roman influence changed in a specific
manner by its sojourn in Persia. Yet another influence comes through
by way of India. It, too, derives from the Hellenistic centre in the
north-west of India, but it was modified in a quite different direction by
the Indian genius. And all these three currents mix in Turkestan and are
fused and modified by its Mongolian and Turkish inhabitants, as well
< 134 >