banner; painting; 幡(Chinese); 繪畫(Chinese) BM-1919-0101-0.134

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:851-900 (circa)
Materials:silk, 絲綢 (Chinese),
Technique:painted
Subjects:vajra bodhisattva 金剛 (Chinese) 菩薩 (Chinese)
Dimensions:Height: 196 centimetres (Including hanging attachment) Height: 187.50 centimetres Width: 28 centimetres (Including hanging attachment) Width: 18.60 centimetres Depth: 1 centimetres

Description:
An extremely well-preserved banner, complete with triangular headpiece and streamers, painted with a standing Vajrapāṇi (thunderbolt bearer), holding a vajra. Ink and colour on silk.
IMG


Comments:EnglishFrom Whitfield 1982:These are two of the best-preserved of the so-called banner paintings from Dunhuang, since they have survived almost complete, with headpieces, side and tail streamers and weighting boards.Taking first the Bodhisattva, and leaving aside the question of identification, which is not easily determined, it is interesting to consider the construction of such a banner, as it is in some respects different from that of the larger votive paintings. The painting itself, on a narrow piece of silk, comprises not only the figure but also a narrow ink border on either edge, a band of lozenges below and a painted valance above; these serve as a kind of frame. In this example the triangular headpiece was of a separate piece of silk, now perished or lost, with a pale pink border sewn on its outer edges. At the apex is the original hanging loop. Along the base of the headpiece, originally covered by the silk but now revealed, is a bamboo splint used as a stiffener. This is wound with scraps of red and blue coloured silk threads, running obliquely in opposite directions and so enabling the rest of the banner to be sewn onto it without risk of slipping. A similar piece of bamboo stiffens the lower end of the painting and from it in turn hang four silk streamers, each decorated with a single wavy stem with alternate leaves and flower buds. These are painted in silver. At the bottom all four streamers are fixed in a wooden board, by means of a slit in which they are held by another splint of bamboo. The board itself, coloured red, is similarly decorated in silver with a central flower flanked by leaves.Two side streamers are attached to the top stiffener so as partially to cover the edges of the painting. Their ends hang free. These ends are of grey silk, sewn onto a longer ribbon of green. As will be seen in Vol.3, scraps of silk were always saved and used as parts of votive materials at Dunhuang. Here there seems to be an aesthetic motive as well since the grey ends of the streamers correspond nicely with the beginning of the silver-decorated tail streamers, while the green part frames the painting.The Vajrapani banner has also the triangular piece of silk from the centre of the headpiece. The suspension loop has a red cord, also apparently original, inserted through it. The lower part consists of a single piece of indigo-dyed silk, with two slits cut almost to the top. The edges of the resulting three streamers have been rolled and finely sewn to prevent the silk fraying. The silk has a shiny appearance, and is also wavy, the latter due simply to long storage rolled round the weighting board. The board is decorated with three floral motifs.Such banners look very similar front and back, since the silk is of a single thickness and the painting can be seen from both sides. That they were meant to be so seen is easily shown since the triangular headpiece is frequently made from a folded square of silk, giving a double thickness and having a separate painting on each side. There are also a fair number of banners more cheaply made out of linen or paper, both of which were opaque: all of these are painted on both sides with similar figures (Vol.2, Pls.41-46). It is therefore likely that the paintings were not hung on a wall but in some place where they could twist and turn freely. In fact the wall paintings show banners hanging from the tops of pagodas or high canopies (e.g., Cave 220, see Flying Devis, 1980,Pl.52); and on occasion, as in two of the Stein paintings showing the Bodhisattva Guide of Souls (Vol. 2,Pls. 9, 10), the banner is hanging from a hook at the top of a staff. Such a hook is actually mentioned in the inscription to Stein painting 216 (Vol. 2, Pl.32), one of the banners of exceptional length, dated A.D.956; the donor “respectfully (caused to be) painted this forty-nine feet banner in one strip. This banner suspended on high from a dragon hook … twisting about and flapping in the wind like a bird in flight, like the coloured [hangings] in the Western Apartments of the Palace.”(Waley, 1931,p.187.)This painting has already been shown as a complete banner in Pl. 28 together with the Bodhisattva of Pl. 55. A similar figure in New Delhi (Stein, Serindia, Ch.i.006) is also preserved complete, with only minimal differences such as the mouth being open to show the teeth, and the side streamers blue instead of green. Even the lozenge border at the bottom has the same colours in the same places.The fact that this is one of a series of a almost identical figures also emerges when one examines the depiction itself, which is far less vigorous than such an example as Pl. 58. The contrast can be seen in the modelling: although colour shading and ink outlines are used in both paintings, here they are used rather tamely and conventionally, in contrast to the bold effects obtained in Pl. 58. Again, both paintings feature a halo ringed with flames: in many cases such flames simply form a decorative outer border or edging to the halo, but in Pl. 58 they serve to break the geometric outline and appear to be blown by the fury of the figure, now within the circle and now outside it. In the present banner and its match in New Delhi, the flames all lie inside the circles and have lost their vitality. The differences illustrate levels of skill among the painters, since all were very probably executed in the same period of the late ninth century. ChineseFrom Whitfield 1982:這是敦煌幡畫中保存最完好的其中兩幅，它們的幡頭、邊、幡尾和最下端的墜板都完全保留下來。首先看菩薩幡，把菩薩不易考證的身份放在一邊不說，來考察幡畫的構造是很有趣的，因爲它有些細節不同于大的還願畫。這個畫在一條狹窄的絹帶上畫像，不僅有菩薩像，兩側還有細細的墨色的鑲邊，下邊綴加菱形花紋帶，上邊是著色的短帷幔，起到了邊欄的作用。在這個樣品中，三角形幡頭外沿縫著粉色邊布，是單獨的一塊絹，現在已經毀壞或遺失了。在三角形的尖上是原來的吊環，在幡頭的基部是一個用作加固物的竹夾板，原來覆蓋著絲織品，現在已經露出來了。有一個裂口帶著染成紅色和藍色的絲綫，斜著滑到了相反的方向，所以使幡旗可以被縫在上面以免滑落。一個同樣的竹板加固了畫的底座，從那裏依次垂下了四條絲帶，每條絲帶上裝飾著一個單獨的波浪形的杆莖，其上交替排列著樹葉和花蕾。這些都畫在絲織品上，在幡尾，全部絲帶被固定在一個木板上，木板本身被漆成紅色，同樣附有銀飾—葉子包圍著中心的花朵。兩邊的絲帶系在頂部的加固物上，所以部分地遮住了畫的邊緣，它們的尾部是灰色的絲織品，沒有挂任何東西，被縫在一個較長的綠絲帶上。就像即將Vol.3中看見的那樣，在敦煌壁畫中，絲織碎片，常常節約下來用作還願的部分材料。這裏似乎也帶有美學的目的，因爲絲帶的灰色尾部很好的和銀裝飾的絲帶尾部開始部分相配，同時綠色部分框住了圖畫。金剛力士像的幡頭中央同樣也失去了三角形的那塊絲織品，吊環中插著一個紅帶，很明顯也是原來的，其下部是一片單獨的藍靛染的絲綢，鉸開兩個口，形成了三個下垂的帶子，卷起來以防止零亂，絲綢的外表閃光，幷總是波浪形的，後者只是簡單地因爲長期地卷在一塊重木板上保存而導致的。這塊木板裝飾以三個花紋。這樣的幡的正反面看起來非常相似，因爲絲綢只有一層，兩面都可以看見圖像，它們刻意被設計成容易看見，因爲三角形的頭幡由折叠的絲織品製成，具有雙層的厚度幷且每一面都是不同的畫面。還有很多的幡畫製作廉價，由亞麻布或紙製成，它們都是不透光的：兩面的圖案是相同的，(Vol. 2,Pls,41-46).這是因爲這些幡畫幷不是懸挂在墻上，在有些地方它們能够捲起來或自由翻動，事實上壁畫顯示幡畫懸掛在寶塔頂部和高的華蓋(例如：220窟，敦煌飛天，1980，Pl 52)；甚至象斯坦因收藏的兩幅畫中的《引路菩薩圖》(Vol.2 Pls. 9, 10)那樣，幡畫從某個物體頂部的勾子上懸掛下來。這樣的勾子在斯坦因收藏的畫216中已經被提到—該畫繪于西元956年，它的長度超乎想像，捐獻者分別在一條帶子上繪出了這個49英尺長的幡畫。這個幡畫從一個龍形的鈎子上垂下來，在風中捲曲、飄轉，就像鳥兒在飛翔，像西宮的彩色懸挂物一樣，(Waley, 1931,p. 187.)。此幡全圖已經和圖55的菩薩一同刊載在圖28中。與其相似的幡則收藏在新德里國立博物館（斯坦因《西域》，Ch.006），也保存完好。除張口露牙，兩側的幡尾不是綠的而是青色等方面的細微差別外，底部菱形邊緣的顔色和位置均相同。事實上，檢視該畫本身即可發現其是大致相同的系列幡畫中的一件。那些像的描繪，與圖58的金剛力士像相比，缺少活力。其不同點首先體現在肉感的表現上。雖然雙方都是用明暗和墨線表現肉感，但本圖的表現卻很雅氣，符合體型，與上一圖力大無比的強悍感成對比。兩者均伴有火焰光，但表現有差異。大多時候，火焰是單獨在頭光的外緣部或者一角上，與此相對，上一圖的金剛力士像中，宛如是被像的威猛所震動，至使內外都有火焰在燃燒。而本圖的像和新德里國立博物館中的相同形式的像，火焰只在圓形裏面，失去了生氣。這些繪畫都被認爲是9世紀後半葉同期製作的，因此這種差別是由畫家個人才能的差距造成的。