banner; painting; 幡(Chinese); 繪畫(Chinese) BM-1919-0101-0.97

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:8thC-9thC
Materials:silk, 絲綢 (Chinese),
Technique:painted
Subjects:groom buddha horse/ass landscape 男仆 (Chinese) 佛 (Chinese) 哺乳動物 (Chinese) 山水 (Chinese) life of the buddha
Dimensions:Height: 58.50 centimetres (Painted image) Height: 76.30 centimetres (Painting in mount) Width: 18.50 centimetres (Painted image) Width: 35.50 centimetres (Painting in mount)

Description:
Painted banner showing three scenes from the Life of the Buddha, set in a beautifully detailed landscape. The episodes illustrate Śākyamuni’s farewell to his groom, Chandaka, and his horse, Kanthaka; the shaving of Śākyamuni’s head; and his life of austerities. Blank cartouches on alternate sides of the scenes. Ink and colour on silk.
IMG


Comments:EnglishFrom Whitfield 1982:This banner, almost perfectly preserved in spite of the fact that all its accessories are lost, is the pair to a banner in New Delhi, showing the Great Departure and King Suddhodana’s subsequent examination of the women and gaolers (Ch.lv. 0011, Stein, Desert Cathay, vol. Ⅱ, Pl.Ⅵ). The subjects of the British Museum banner follow immediately after these episodes, and represent the Farewell, the Shaving of Sākyamuni’s head, and his Life of Austerities. All these scenes are set in an orderly landscape of exceptional completeness and great beauty. The three episodes are shown in succession from the top downwards, but the landscape is course built up from the bottom, where Sākyamuni is shown in meditation on a rock, clad only in a red dhoti, his arms and upper body naked and already emaciated.The scene is set on a green slope, with groups of small trees and steep valleys on either side. The outer contours are drawn in ink, with ink wash and orange wash helping to accent the recesses. This space is closed by a thick diagonal beyond which lies another flat plateau, edged on the left by a strong zig-zag series of banks, and overhung on the right by a cliff wholly executed in ink and ink washes. The enclosed space so defined is closed off at the rear by a triangular hill crowned with flowering trees, and on the left by the blank cartouche, originally coloured yellow, through which a white ground now appears. The symmetrical slopes of the hill open up to form a ridge leading to the top, and beyond this appear clouds.The farewell scene at the top again takes place on a plateau, this time marked by a shallow zig-zag bank running across the picture. Sākyamuni is seated on the same rock as in the central scene, but here it is seen from the left. Chandaka and Kanthaka in front of him kneel beneath a double or triple layer of steep green tree-clad slopes, undercut by fissured cliffs. To the right, the flat ground opens out, with trees and gentle slopes, to a stretch of water, distant blue hills and piled-up clouds.This one painting thus combines most of the possible arrangements of major landscape motifs. In particular the most vivid impression is of the mode later known to Guo Xi 郭熙 as shenyuan深遠, “deep distance”, with a high cliff to one side allowing a view across a flat area into the far distance. It is a highly successful and uniquely Chinese formula, naturally used to great advantage to form much larger narrtive sequences in landscape on the walls of the cave chapels.As to the date, although it is tempting to go back to the eighth century by reason of the high artistic standard and such details as the flowering trees, perhaps a safer clue is provided by a detail such as the elegantly tied and twisting white sash of the attendant divinity in the hair-cutting scene; compare the sashes of the Bodhisattvas at each side of a paradise such as in Pls. 9-8 and 9-9. A mid-ninth century date thus seems to be possible, although an earlier one should not be excluded. ChineseFrom Whitfield 1982:盡管其配件全部丟失了，但該幡還是被幾乎完整保存下來了，這與現存新德里的一幡是一對，表現了偉大的轉變和國王淨飯王隨後對獄卒們和婦女的審問(Ch. lv. 0011,斯坦因, Desert Cathay,vol. II, Pl. VI),大英博物館藏有一幡主題緊接其後，表現了告別、剃髮和他的苦行生活。所有這些場景都被順序安排成特別完整和雄偉美景的畫面，三個片斷從頂部一直向下，當然風景由下部開始建立。在那裏表現太子在一塊岩石上沉思，只纏一條紅色腰布，他的手臂和上半身都在裸露著，因爲饑餓瘦骨嶙峋。這個場景安排在綠色的山坡上，坡上有大片小樹林，兩邊是陡峭的山谷。外面的輪廓用墨畫，借助墨和橙色來強調隱密處，這個空間被一條下面的躺在另一個平坦高原的粗的對角線分割開，一條非常彎曲的河岸在它的左邊，右邊有一個懸崖——完全用墨和墨水處理，圍起來的空間明示它在尾部由一個飾以開花的樹的三角形山丘來分隔，左邊的長方形題簽原來是黃色的，現在看起來已經沒有顔色了。對稱的山丘斜坡向上形成一個通向頂部的山脊，更遠處有雲彩。頂部的告別場面又一次發生在高原，這次的標志是一個淺淺的、彎彎曲曲的河岸流涇畫面，太子坐在岩石中，處於場景的中央，但也可以從左邊看到他，車匿和犍陟跪在他的前面，下面是兩三層的陡峭的覆滿綠樹的山坡，不幸有一些裂痕,降低其價值。到了右邊，平坦的地面敞開著，有樹和緩坡，延綿的水，遠處的青色小丘和層層疊疊的雲。這幅畫結合大多數主要山水畫，主題的可能的布局，尤其最強烈的印象是對後來郭熙産生影響的“深遠”的風格。一個很高的陡崖在一邊，使視線通過一段平坦的地帶後帶進很遠的距離，這是極高的成功的和獨特的中國風格，很自然地提高了在石窟壁畫的大型故事圖中的山水畫的效果。 Zwalf 1985This banner shows, from the top downwards, the Prince’s farewell to his horse and groom, and the shaving of his head as he takes up the religious life. The landscape, of exceptional completeness and great beauty, is built up from the bottom, where Siddhārtha is shown in meditation on a rock. His body is emaciated and birds have built a nest on his head during his period of austerity. Further scenes from the Buddha’s life were depicted on separate banners: each hung from a triangular headpiece and was completed by tail streamers and a weighting-board, here lost. Rawson 1992:We know little about the qualities of landscape painting of the Tang and Five Dynasties periods, as almost none has survived. Under the Tang, leading painters by the names of Li Sixun (651-716) and Li Zhaodao (c. 670-730) are said to have excelled in landscape painting, but few copies of their work have survived. Banner paintings from cave 17 at Dunhuang give a few early examples of landscape painting. Certain basic techniques of landscape construction are already evident which were later to be discussed by Song dynasty theorists. It is clear that the distinction between deep and high distance, described by the Northern Song painter Guo Xi (c. 1001-1090), is being employed. The ridges of the mountains are modelled using short brushstrokes to create texture, as discussed by Song writers too.