DOI Heft:
Siren, Osvald: The chinese Pavilion of C.T. Loo & Co and its fresco paintings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57095#0250
THE CHINESE PAVILION OE C. T. LOO & CO. AND ITS FRESCO-PAINTINGS
bowl, an occupation which indeed seems well fitted
to these celestial beings. Their full types and elegant
hands give them a more wordly aspect than that of
the Dhyani-Bodhisattvas; they are nevertheless pro
vided with large halos of radiating light.
It is by no means easy to propose an approximate
date for paintings of this kind because, as is well
known, nothing in art remained more conservative
than Buddhist fresco painting, and we have no
examples, except some of the Tun Huang frescoes,
with dated inscriptions. We are thus thrown back
simply on an analysis of style, a procedure which
also becomes difficult, because of the lack of starting-
points. If we may draw parallels from the evolution
of religious sculpture in China, where dated spe-
cimens are quite numerous, it seems to me that
figures of such a pure and elevated religious In-
spiration and refinement of style must be dated
before the Yüan period. The closest parallels in
sculpture to these painted Bodhisattvas are certain
wooden figures executed in the 12th Century. A great
quantity were made about that time in Northern
China, which was then under the sway of the Chin
and Liao dynasties, while the South was still under
the rule of the Sung. The romantic landscape art
of the Southern Sung period, centered in Hangchow,
is fairly well-known, particularly thanks to the
safeguarding of so many of these masterpieces in
Japanese collections since the 15th Century, but the
art which at the same period existed in Northern
China has as yet been practically overlooked.
It seems quite evident that a new revival of re-
ligious fervour manifested itself about this time; it
became transmuted into pure poetry and pantheistic
landscape painting in the South, but in the North
it found expression in a more traditional form, in
sculptures and paintings representing the Symbols
of Buddhist faith. It must be readily admitted that
these paintings might be a Century or two earlier,
as they still have something of the same grandeur
and aloofness as the wall - paintings in Höryuji
(7th Century). But on the other hand it should be
remembered that Buddhist art in China was not
flourishing at the end of T ang; it feil as a matter
of fact into a kind of decadence during the 9th and
10th centuries, and it was only later that it revived
and became a living power, as may well be seen in
the evolution of sculpture. In quality these are
superior to the sculptures but in type and style thye
do accord with some of the finest specimens of
plastic art of the eleventh and twelvth centuries,
and therefore I think there is a fair probability that
such a dating may approach the truth.
There must indeed have been in China at various
epochs many wonderful series of Buddhist paintings
in the large and richly-endowed temples which were
executed for the Emperors and for the nobility in
the T’ang as well as in later periods. It is recorded
that the great painter Wu Tao tzu alone would
have executed no less than three hundred such wall
paintings in Buddhist temples. But unfortunately
none of these complete temple decorations seems
to have been preserved. The majority of Buddhist
paintings on silk which have become known are
not of a quality which excites aesthetic enjoyment,
and the frescoes known up to date do also in most
cases reveal themselves as copies of earlier compo-
sitions.
We have thus hardly been in the habit of con-
sidering the Chinese art of mural painting as com-
parable in artistic importance to the great fresco
paintings executed by the early masters of European
or Indian art on the walls of sanctuaries, but
specimens such as those discussed above may indeed
serve to modify this conception. They are in art-
istic importance fully comparable to the great mural
figures of the early Sienese masters for instance.
If we make the experiment of placing them in
imagination in the Palazzo Publico in Siena, let
us say, at the side of Simone Martini’s or Ambrogio
Lorenzetti’s most monumental creations, or — why
not — in the Lower Church of San Francesco at
Assisi, we should indeed be forced to admit
that they would not only hold their place as
representations of form, and expressions of pure,
rythmically animated composition, but also impress
themselves upon the beholder as revelations of a
spiritual power more concentrated and more uni-
versal than perhaps any of these masterpieces of
early Italian Art.
Though we know very little if anything, about
their intellectual meaning or the ideals they are
supposed to represent in a symbolic way, we cannot
remain in uncertainty as to their religious appeal.
They command an admiration in silence, and they
open a view into universal realms of thought and
beauty which, after all, is one of the greatest things
that ever may be attained by art.
552
bowl, an occupation which indeed seems well fitted
to these celestial beings. Their full types and elegant
hands give them a more wordly aspect than that of
the Dhyani-Bodhisattvas; they are nevertheless pro
vided with large halos of radiating light.
It is by no means easy to propose an approximate
date for paintings of this kind because, as is well
known, nothing in art remained more conservative
than Buddhist fresco painting, and we have no
examples, except some of the Tun Huang frescoes,
with dated inscriptions. We are thus thrown back
simply on an analysis of style, a procedure which
also becomes difficult, because of the lack of starting-
points. If we may draw parallels from the evolution
of religious sculpture in China, where dated spe-
cimens are quite numerous, it seems to me that
figures of such a pure and elevated religious In-
spiration and refinement of style must be dated
before the Yüan period. The closest parallels in
sculpture to these painted Bodhisattvas are certain
wooden figures executed in the 12th Century. A great
quantity were made about that time in Northern
China, which was then under the sway of the Chin
and Liao dynasties, while the South was still under
the rule of the Sung. The romantic landscape art
of the Southern Sung period, centered in Hangchow,
is fairly well-known, particularly thanks to the
safeguarding of so many of these masterpieces in
Japanese collections since the 15th Century, but the
art which at the same period existed in Northern
China has as yet been practically overlooked.
It seems quite evident that a new revival of re-
ligious fervour manifested itself about this time; it
became transmuted into pure poetry and pantheistic
landscape painting in the South, but in the North
it found expression in a more traditional form, in
sculptures and paintings representing the Symbols
of Buddhist faith. It must be readily admitted that
these paintings might be a Century or two earlier,
as they still have something of the same grandeur
and aloofness as the wall - paintings in Höryuji
(7th Century). But on the other hand it should be
remembered that Buddhist art in China was not
flourishing at the end of T ang; it feil as a matter
of fact into a kind of decadence during the 9th and
10th centuries, and it was only later that it revived
and became a living power, as may well be seen in
the evolution of sculpture. In quality these are
superior to the sculptures but in type and style thye
do accord with some of the finest specimens of
plastic art of the eleventh and twelvth centuries,
and therefore I think there is a fair probability that
such a dating may approach the truth.
There must indeed have been in China at various
epochs many wonderful series of Buddhist paintings
in the large and richly-endowed temples which were
executed for the Emperors and for the nobility in
the T’ang as well as in later periods. It is recorded
that the great painter Wu Tao tzu alone would
have executed no less than three hundred such wall
paintings in Buddhist temples. But unfortunately
none of these complete temple decorations seems
to have been preserved. The majority of Buddhist
paintings on silk which have become known are
not of a quality which excites aesthetic enjoyment,
and the frescoes known up to date do also in most
cases reveal themselves as copies of earlier compo-
sitions.
We have thus hardly been in the habit of con-
sidering the Chinese art of mural painting as com-
parable in artistic importance to the great fresco
paintings executed by the early masters of European
or Indian art on the walls of sanctuaries, but
specimens such as those discussed above may indeed
serve to modify this conception. They are in art-
istic importance fully comparable to the great mural
figures of the early Sienese masters for instance.
If we make the experiment of placing them in
imagination in the Palazzo Publico in Siena, let
us say, at the side of Simone Martini’s or Ambrogio
Lorenzetti’s most monumental creations, or — why
not — in the Lower Church of San Francesco at
Assisi, we should indeed be forced to admit
that they would not only hold their place as
representations of form, and expressions of pure,
rythmically animated composition, but also impress
themselves upon the beholder as revelations of a
spiritual power more concentrated and more uni-
versal than perhaps any of these masterpieces of
early Italian Art.
Though we know very little if anything, about
their intellectual meaning or the ideals they are
supposed to represent in a symbolic way, we cannot
remain in uncertainty as to their religious appeal.
They command an admiration in silence, and they
open a view into universal realms of thought and
beauty which, after all, is one of the greatest things
that ever may be attained by art.
552