painting; 繪畫(Chinese) BM-1919-0101-0.77

Period:Northern Song dynasty Production date:966 (inscription on reverse)
Materials:paper, 紙 (Chinese),
Technique:painted
Subjects:groom horse/ass 男仆 (Chinese) 哺乳動物 (Chinese) camel
Dimensions:Height: 31.50 centimetres Width: 86 centimetres

Description:
Sketch of horse and camel, each led by a groom. Two sheets of paper, one animal and groom on each, pasted together. Whip of a third groom is visible on the small surviving section of paper attached on the right. On the reverse, an inscription dating to AD 966. Related text on the recto overlapping the painting. Ink and colour on paper.
IMG


Comments:The horse and camel in this painting do not carry any loads, which suggests that they represent tribute animals, perhaps intended for the Chinese court. This work is made of two sheets of paper pasted together. The inscription on verso is a draft text dated 966 that record the restoration of Cave 96 at the Mogao Caves. It was sponsored by Cao Yuanzhong, commander of the local military government (Guiyijun) and his wife, a member of the Zhai clan. EnglishFrom Whitfield 1983:These two animals are depicted in lively fashion, each attended by a groom or keeper. Although the whip of a third driver is visible on the right, this is not a caravan of merchants or a series of haphazard sketches; despite its swift execution, it is a record of animals brought as tribute, of the kind that is known through the lost masterpiece of Li Gonglin 李公麟, Five Tribute Horses, which itself followed a genre already well established in the Tang. The grooms in the Stein sketch stand close to their charges, as if drawn up for inspection. A rather different impression is given in a manuscript in the British Library illustrating the Perils from which Avalokitesvara offered protection, as an armed warrior confronts a man leading a camel and mule, with the Bodhisattva intervening (Fig. 95-2). There. Despite the resemblance of the animals to those shown here, the context clearly indicates a merchant and his caravan.Each of the animals occupies a whole sheet of paper, the sheets being stuck together, with the leading edge of the third sheet overlapping a centimetre or so on the right. On the back of the drawing is an inscription dated in the fourth year of Qiande of the Song (A.D.966) and relating to the repair of temples by the ruler of Dunhuang, Cao Yuanzhong (Fig.84). This date and a few other phrases from the inscription were practiced first on the painted side of the paper. According to Waley, these phrases were written before the sketches were made; but a close inspection of the work shows that the pale ink characters lie over the colour washes that lend a certain finish to the two animals. Furthermore, the long inscription on the back extends only about three-quarters of the length of the two surviving sheets of paper, not reaching the third sheet. I am therefore in no doubt that the inscription, which contains numerous crossed-out characters, was itself merely a rough draft, and that the sketches must date considerably earlier, and not later, than A.D. 966.There is in Berlin, in the Museum fur Indische Kunst, a handsome drawing of a horse (Acc. No.Ⅲ 7587) not unlike these sketches but without a groom, and more careful in execution. There too there is writing on the back, but apparently directly related to the subject, since it seems to number horses and the amounts of food eaten by them. The piece was found at Khotan. Among the Pelliot manuscripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale, P. 3951 shows a horse and P. 4717 a camel, depicted in ink outline only, and without grooms, but otherwise similar to the Stein fragment (Jao Tsong-yi, 1978, Pls. LⅡ, LⅢ). ChineseFrom Whitfield 1983:兩個動物刻畫得栩栩如生，各有一個馭者在側。右端可見第三位馭者的鞭子，此畫確非商隊圖，也不是隨意的簡單草圖，儘管它僅是速描，然而確是反映作爲用動物朝貢的實錄。通過現已佚失的李公麟的《五貢馬圖》，可以知道其所屬的形式，其承襲唐代已經形成的流派。馭者像是在接受檢閱，緊靠在動物旁邊站著。英國國家圖書館收藏的觀音救苦圖中，有一位身穿鎧甲的武士，站在拉駱駝和騾的男子前，兩人中間畫有菩薩的一幅圖（參照Fig.95-2）。動物表現手法與本圖非常相似，但從其前後關係上推斷，其表現顯然是一位商人及商隊。本圖中，每個動物都佔一張紙，然後粘合而成，右邊殘留著約1釐米寬的第三張紙。此畫中倒書“大宋乾德四年（966年）……”題記，以及關於敦煌歸義軍節度使曹元忠修繕寺院的記錄。畫面上的紀年及文字在先。根據Waley的觀點，這些文字寫在繪畫之前，但是仔細研究一下此畫，會發現用淡墨書寫的文字，覆蓋在給動物添加的顔色之上。這些文字只用了兩張紙的四分之三，沒有延及到第三紙。從這些文字的多處刪改的書寫狀況看，只是一個草稿，畫是在此之前，不晚於966年。柏林的印度美術館中有一幅漂亮的馬的線描畫（收藏號No.III7587），畫得非常仔細，與此不同的是沒有畫馭者。背面同樣也有文字，但文字記述的是與主題有關的馬及飼料的的數量。此畫是在和闐被發現的。法國國立圖書館藏伯希和收集的文書P. 3951是畫的一匹馬，P. 4717畫的是一匹駱駝，僅用墨綫勾勒輪廓，同樣也沒有畫馭者，但其他方面卻與本圖所示的畫非常相似（參照饒宗頤《敦煌白畫》，1978年，圖52、53）。