banner; painting; 幡(Chinese); 繪畫(Chinese) BM-1919-0101-0.92

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:9thC
Materials:silk, 絲綢 (Chinese),
Technique:painted
Subjects:buddha equestrian landscape 佛 (Chinese) 哺乳動物 (Chinese) 山水 (Chinese) 國王/王后 (Chinese) king/queen life of the buddha
Dimensions:Height: 25 centimetres Height: 77.50 centimetres Width: 33 centimetres (banner top) Width: 19 centimetres

Description:
Banner with three scenes from the Life of the Buddha, in a landscape setting: Buddha’s father, King Suddhodana, despatching a messenger on a horse in search of Śākyamuni; the search; and the messenger’s return without him. Blank cartouches on alternate sides of the scenes. Ink and colour on silk. Banner heading made of silk plain weave, 18.8cm high and 19.5cm wide. Most of the banner face is made of silk plain weave with polychrome ink painting are now gone, only leaving the dark brown silk lining. This heading has a side border of two layers. The inner borders are made of clamp resist dyed silk plain weave with dots, repeated in 1.9cm in warp direction and 1.4cm in weft direction. Three Chinese characters, probably “Jie Fu Zhi” are written on both sides. The outer borders are made of brown plain weave sewn with a red suspension loop in twill damask weave, 6.2cm long, on the top. Weave structures: 1. Banner face, silk plain weave Warp: silk, untwisted, single, dark brown, 50 ends/cm; Weft: silk, untwisted, single, dark brown, 26 lats/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave. 2. Heading border, clamp resist dyed silk plain weave Warp: silk, untwisted, single, brown, 45 ends/cm; Weft: silk, untwisted, single, brown, 19 lats/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave. 3. Heading border, silk plain weave Warp: silk, untwisted, single, brown, 46 ends/cm; Weft: silk, untwisted, single, brown, 37 lats/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave. 4. Suspension loop, twill damask Warp: spun silk, Z twisted, single, red, 30 ends/cm; Weft: spun silk, Z twisted, single, red, 16 lats/cm. Weave structure: 2/2 twill. 幡頭殘片，幡面部分高約18.8cm，寬約19.5cm，以深褐色絹製成襯裏，還有部分表面的彩繪絹殘留；幡面外裝飾有兩層斜邊，裏層爲棕色夾纈絹，圓點紋樣，圖案經向循環約爲1.9cm，緯向約爲1.4cm，正反兩面均有墨書，可能是“界福質”三字，外層斜邊以褐色絹製成；幡頭上方釘一長約6.2cm的紅色綾制懸袢。 組織結構： 1. 深褐色幡面襯絹 經線：絲，無撚，單根排列，深褐色，50根/cm；緯線：絲，無撚，單根排列，深褐色，26根/cm；組織：1/1平紋。 2. 棕色圓點夾纈絹幡頭斜邊 經線：絲，無撚，單根排列，棕色，45根/cm；緯線：絲，無撚，單根排列，棕色，19根/cm；組織：1/1平紋。 3. 褐色絹幡頭斜邊 經線：絲，無撚，單根排列，褐色，46根/cm；緯線：絲，無撚，單根排列，褐色，37根/cm；組織：1/1平紋。 4. 紅色綾懸袢
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Comments:EnglishFrom Whitfield 1982:As Aki Uyeno has pointed out (1970,p.12), the floral border on the triangular headpiece, actually a continuation of the same silk as the main scenes, corresponds with that of Pl.31.Like that painting, this one originally was furnished with brown silk streamers, now separately preserved. The colouring of the landscape-dividing motifs, also, suggests that this painting formed part of the same series as Pls. 31 and 33, and that the subject is again the life of the prince. In this cave the top scene represents Sākyamuni’s father, Suddhodana, sending out a messenger to find his son. In the centre the messenger is seen galloping through the hills on his quest, reporting back empty-handed below. This last scene also features musicians to represent some of the pleasures of palace life, and an enclosed garden with lotus tank, bamboo and pavilion (with an unidentified object, perhaps a casket or a dais, inside) to represent its amenities.Throughout the painting the white pigment has suffered considerable loss, but otherwise the colours are strong and well preserved. ChineseFrom Whitfield 1982:正如Aki Uyeno 指出的那樣(1970,p.12)，三角形幡頭上的花邊，事實上就是主要場景的同一絹的延續。與圖31的幡一樣，就像圖畫中的一樣，這個最先飾有棕色絲帶，現在被單獨存放著。這個山水畫分割主題的顔色，暗示了這畫構成了象圖31、33同屬一個系統，而且這個主題又是王子生活的一部分。這個洞的頂部場景代表釋迦牟尼的父親淨飯王派出使者尋找他的兒子，在中間場景可以看見使者在山丘上到處急馳,不斷尋找，下面是使者空手而歸彙報情況。最後一個場景仍然以樂師爲特征表現宮廷生活的歡愉，一個有蓮花池的院子，竹和亭子(內有不明物，也許是小箱或者講臺)以表現它的環境。通觀整體畫面，白色顔料已經脫落很多，但其他色彩保存良好。