papercut; 剪紙(Chinese) BM-MAS.913.c

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:9thC-10thC
Materials:paper, 紙 (Chinese),
Technique:painted, cut, 剪 (Chinese),
Subjects:flower 花 (Chinese)
Dimensions:Diameter: 9 centimetres

Description:
Flower made by six superimposed layers of paper cut, painted and pasted together (fragmentary).
IMG


Comments:This paper flower was found together with 1919.0101.0.230.1-2 and MAS 913.a-b, d. EnglishFrom Whitfield 1985:These six paper flowers must be among the earliest examples of cut paper and collage to have been preserved: they are another instance of the way in which the sealed library of Cave 17 has preserved the commonplace along with great works of art. Flowers are ubiquitous in the art of Dunhuang: they are scattered by the apsarasas, or flying celestials, above the Paradise scenes (see Vol. 1, Pl. 7-6); floral rosettes arranged in alternation are one of the principal motifs both of textile patterns and of the decorative borders derived from those textiles and used to frame the wall paintings and ceiling decorations. A single large flower is often the central ceiling motif. The use of rosettes to fill the spaces in a square lattice has already been observed on the back of one of the paintings in the Stein Collection (Vol. 2,Pl. 74).In the majority of these instances, the rosette, whether it has four, six or eight main petals, is firmly based on a square rather than on a circle. This can be seen even in the designs printed on silk. The formula made it easy to add extra elements such as petals or leaves to the rosette, and also to align adjacent rosettes in rows. The same principles can be seen at work in these six paper flowers, most of which have a dab of glue on the back where they must have once been attached to a wall or some other architectural feature.One of them is simply a painted square of fairly thick paper (with four dabs of glue behind). The corner petals were drawn first, in red pigment, closely following the sides of the square. The petals between them are simply arcs filling what space was left on the centre of each side. Finally ink was used to give a better definition to the flower.The other flowers are made of thinner papers, some of them coloured. They were folded, cut, unfolded and pasted together. Each has six layers of paper. On the back it can be seen that each layer of paper started as a square of paper folded twice to make a smaller square. A symmetrical design was produced by cutting with scissors and unfolding again. The flower shown at the top left is an exception as there are five, not four, main petals.The use of cut paper decorations in tombs of the Tang period at Turfan has been discussed by Aki Uyeno (1963, pp. 27-37). Most of these were of shapes other than flowers, but more recent excavations at Astana have recovered other flowers of cut paper and silk, and far more elaborate three-dimensional confections displaying bright colours, the most spectacular example being the large bouquet found perfectly preserved in Tomb 187 (see Xinjiang chutu wenwu, Pl. 183; and Wenwu, 1975/7, Pl. 2, p. 50). The Stein Collection also includes an elaborate confection from Miran of artificial flowers (Fig. 160), cut out of red and blue cloth and set on sticks in a cloth and plaster ground, the whole “probably meant to represent the sacred lake, Sukhavati, with floating lotuses and water-plants” (Serindia, Vol. I, p. 543 and Pl. XLVIII). ChineseFrom Whitfield 1985:這裏展現的六個紙製花飾，可以說在作爲裁剪粘貼的紙製手工藝品中，屬於最早時期的遺留物。另外，這些還提供了在敦煌第17窟（藏經洞），不僅保存了最好的美術作品，而且還收存了那些一般的日常性的物品的例證。敦煌美術中到處都體現著花：淨土圖的上方可見飛天在散花（見第1卷圖7－5），把花紋左右交錯的設計，無論在染織品的紋樣中，還是在石窟壁畫和窟頂裝飾畫的邊框紋樣中，都是作爲一個最基本的內容使用的。窟頂中央單獨描繪大花紋的情況也較多。斯坦因收集的敦煌畫中，在背面加強張力用的方木格中出現的花紋的效果在前面已經見過（第2卷圖74）。花瓣無論是四瓣、六瓣或是八瓣，花紋大多不是圓形，而基本是方形的，在印染的絹中也見到這種情況。那是因爲，方的花瓣或葉子等添加較容易，並且在排列花紋時也較方便。這些主要方面從這裏展現的六件花飾也可看到。從它們的背面幾乎都塗了小許膠來看，就明白曾經是貼在牆壁或其他建造物上的。其中一件的外表是相當厚的四方紙，上面繪了花瓣等（背面有四處塗了膠）。最初，在四角用紅顔料繪著的花瓣，然後再繪四邊。其間每一角的花瓣中心部位及花瓣之間都留出間隙，只括了簡單的弧，最後，爲使花形更加明瞭，加了黑線。其他五件用薄紙製作，一些地方上色。將紙折疊後剪下，展開後粘合，每個重疊六片。看其背面則一目了然，每一張方紙是要折疊兩次再剪下而成的。設計是左右相稱的，這是因爲折疊後用剪子剪下，再將其展開形成的。左上角的花飾不是四瓣而是五瓣，是唯一的例外。Aki Uyeno先生曾指出，在唐代的吐魯番地區墓室內部的裝飾中，就有使用剪紙的工藝品（『トルファン彩畫斷片につぃて』－《美術研究》230號，1963年9月，27～37頁），它們幾乎沒有花形状的作品。但最近在阿斯塔那的發掘中，發現了把紙或絹剪成的花形，和明亮彩色的立體裝飾品等。其中，從187號墓中還發現了完整形狀的大型絹製花束，很壯觀（參照《新疆出土文物》第183圖以及《文物》1975－7，第2圖，50頁）。在斯坦因收集品中也有從米蘭獲得的人造花的美麗裝飾品(Fig. 160)。剪了紅布或青布粘在棒上，插入灰泥地上的布中，其整體大概是要表現浮生著蓮花或水草的聖池（《西域》第1卷543頁，圖版XLVIII）。