A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s1.11

c15.s1.11

The most interesting of the Dandān-Uiliq paintings is the fresco depicting some legend connected with a female water-sprite, probably the tale told by Hiuen Tsang of the minister who married the widow of the Nāga king in order to secure the flow of water over the lands of Khotan. However that may be, the design and execution of the composition are of considerable merit, and well illustrate the variety of elements combined in the mediaeval art of Khotan. The pose of the lady, whose figure in the original projects about 18 inches above the water, is plainly a reminiscence of some Hellenistic Venus, such as the de’ Medici or the Capitoline, and the vine-leaf guarding her modesty equally recalls the conventional fig-leaf. Her ornaments are Indian, her face Chinese. Thus in this one figure we can trace the meeting of the three civilizations, Greek, Indian, and Chinese. The seated figures are more Chinese in type than anything else. I do not perceive any Persian factors in this work (Fig. 215).