A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s1.12

c15.s1.12

Another painting (D. x, 4), more primitive in style, illustrates the story of the Queen of Khotan, a Chinese princess, who secretly introduced silk cocoons into her adopted country by concealing them in the folds of her head-dress. The central effigy of the princess, boldly sketched with a few etching-like strokes, will suffice as an example of the style (Fig. 216). It will be observed that the head of the princess, like the heads of the three other persons in the picture, is surrounded by a nimbus or halo, apparently affording clear evidence that in Khotan art of the eighth century, as