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Research of the Worn in the Donors' Portraits in the Unearthed Artworks

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Research of the Worn in the Donors' Portraits in the Unearthed Artworks American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 5, 2020 Research of the Worn in the Donors’ Portraits in the Unearthed Artworks of the Dunhuang Mogao Grotto Sutra Cave Xia Shengping*, Chen Wenjin Tunhuangology Information Center of the Dunhuang Research Academy, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China Xia Shengping E-mail:[email protected], [email protected] Chen Wenjin Email: [email protected] Abstract This article mainly discusses the portraits of cave temple donors from the unearthed artworks of the Dunhuang Mogao Grotto Sutra Cave. The Dunhuang murals and paintings of the Sutra Cave are major portions of the art of Dunhuang. Portraiture of cave donors are important themes in Dunhuang’s grotto art, and serve to depict the roles and histories of different persons, events, beliefs, and religious groups in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in different eras and changes in painting and styles. The identities and characteristics of these donors therefore play a very important role in the chronology of the grottoes. The author discusses the quantity of the surviving paintings of the Sutra Cave, studies of the donors’ portraits, the inscriptions and dates of the donors’ portraits, the types and presentation forms of the donors displayed on the surviving paintings in the Sutra Cave, thereby fully explaining that the inscriptions on the donors are virtually identical on both portraits and murals, and fully explaining the use of verse to express the goals and desires of the donors who paid to create their paintings. Keywords: Dunhuang Sutra Cave, Artwork, Donors’ portraits, Surviving paintings of Dunhuang Foreword The main body of Dunhuang art is the Dunhuang murals, but the texts and surviving paintings of the Sutra Cave are also a major part of Dunhuang art. Together, the Dunhuang murals and the surviving paintings of the Sutra Cave constitute the whole of the art of Dunhuang[1]. The phrase “surviving paintings” is commonly used in Chinese scholarship to refer to the surviving artworks unearthed in Mogao Grotto Sutra Cave that were not destroyed in the process of their removal and sale overseas by foreign archaeologists. Though this term is also used in this article, the author respects the controversy and subjectivity of this issue. There are similarities between both the figures in the paintings unearthed in the Sutra Cave and the portraits of donors depicted in the Dunhuang murals. These paintings can be used to verify historical records of Dunhuang and to provide evidence of Dunhuang’s ancient history. The portraiture of donors are important themes in Dunhuang grotto art, and contain evidence and depictions of the developmental role of different persons, events, beliefs, and religious groups within the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes across different eras, and showing changes in painting and other artistic styles. As such, the depiction of donors play a very important role in the chronology of the grottoes. 1. Study of the Surviving Paintings of the Dunhuang Grotto Sutra Cave At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Dunhuang Mogao Caves were discovered by accident, and this ultimately attracted great attention from academic circles around the world. Expedition teams from all over the world arrived in Dunhuang, a small town in northwestern China, at the edge of the ancient Silk Road. These teams would remove nearly 50,000 texts, paintings, and murals from the Sutra Cave, along with murals, painted sculptures, and wood carvings from some other caves, causing a large number of Dunhuang’s cultural relics to be lost overseas. Currently, a considerable number of Dunhuang cultural relics are preserved in libraries, museums, and public and private collections in many countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Russia, the United States, India, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Among the many cultural relics unearthed from the Mogao Grotto Sutra Cave that have been lost overseas, paintings mainly include paper paintings, silk paintings, colored paintings on linen paper, line drawings, and engravings. However, the author believes that the silk works unearthed from the Sutra Cave 1 American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 5, 2020 should be included. Therefore, the surviving paintings are composed of two types: discrete paintings on paper, silk, linen, and other material and the artworks embedded within other textual works. 1.1 Statistics on the Number of Surviving Paintings within the Dunhuang Grotto Sutra Cave 1.1.1 Surviving Dunhuang Paintings of the Stein Collection The paintings in the Sutra Cave are now preserved in the British Museum, the National Museum in New Delhi, India, the National Asian Art Museum in the Guimet Museum in Paris, France, and the Oriental Manuscripts Department of the French National Library. The categories of the Dunhuang paintings held in the Stein collection include colored paintings and line drawings on made silk, linen, and paper, as well as engravings. In prior studies, according to Waley’s Catalogue of Paintings Obtained by Stein in Dunhuang[2], we learned that the collection contained a total of 554 artworks, including silk paintings, paper paintings, engravings, and embroidery, based on the statistics of the Sutra Cave paintings obtained in Stein’s two visits to Dunhuang. Among these works, No. 1-281 are stored in the collections of the British Museum, and No. 283-554 are stored in the collections of the National Museum in New Delhi, India. Zhang Peijun later wrote an essay stating that there were more than 520 paintings in the Stein collection[3], however, Mr. Zhang Deming’s Catalogue of the Stein Collection of Surviving Dunhuang Paintings includes the collection numbers, publication indexes, and Chinese inscriptions from the Stein collection of surviving Dunhuang paintings (a total of 885 pieces), providing a basic tool for research and appreciation of the Stein collection. The catalogue collects and categorizes 885 surviving Dunhuang paintings and the Chinese inscriptions within the Stein collection [4]. The author systematically sorts out the paintings and calculates that (285+130+7+1=)423 of them are in the collection of the British Museum. A total of 279 pieces of artworks in the collection of the National Museum in New Delhi, India: SP283-SP554, including 272 surviving Dunhuang paintings and seven engravings. A total of 172 surviving Dunhuang paintings have been selected from the above texts and the IDP website. Among the Dunhuang silk fabrics collected by the Victoria and Albert Museum in the United Kingdom, 11 of them may be categorized as surviving Dunhuang paintings. In conclusion, a total of 885 pieces of surviving Dunhuang paintings are held within the Stein collection. 1.1.2 Surviving Dunhuang Paintings in the Pelliot Collection in France The categories of surviving Dunhuang paintings held in the French Pelliot collection include colored paintings and line drawings on silk, linen, paper, as well as engravings. The surviving Dunhuang paintings obtained by Pelliot are now preserved in the Guimet Museum in France. Based on the statistics published by The Art of Central Asia: the Pelliot Collection in the Guimet Museum[5], Catalogues of Dunhuang Banner Paintings and Silk Paintings,[6] andThe Collection of Dunhuang Banner Paintings and Paper Paintings[7], a total of 247 surviving paintings from the Sutra Cave are preserved in the Guimet Museum in France. Many important works have been published on the sorting and research of surviving Dunhuang paintings collected in France, but a complete catalogue has yet to be produced. This is partly due to the inconsistency of the serial numbers used in the collection and the numbering of the publishing, which makes it difficult for researchers to conduct research. However, Zhang Deming ultimately compiled the Catalogue of the Pelliot Collection of Surviving Dunhuang Paintings[8]. Based on a careful search of the Pelliot collection of surviving Dunhuang paintings in museums like the Guimet Museum and the National Library of France, this catalogue includes the Pelliot collection of surviving Dunhuang paintings (a total of 596 objects). After undergoing screening, the current edition of the catalogue now includes the scroll of surviving Dunhuang painting No. 288, the scroll of surviving Tibetan painting No. 45, the scroll of surviving Sanskrit painting No. 13, the scroll of surviving Sogdian painting No. 1, the scroll of surviving Uyghur painting No. 1, and the scroll of surviving Tangut painting No. 10, all of which are currently collected in the French National Library. As a result, the total number of surviving Dunhuang paintings in the Pelliot collection is 596. This catalogue includes the numbers, plate indexes, and Chinese inscriptions of Dunhuang silk paintings, coloured paintings on paper and linen, line drawings, and engravings stored in the Pelliot collection. 1.1.3 The Surviving Paintings of the Sutra Cave Obtained by Sergei Oldenburg of Russia The surviving paintings of the Sutra Cave obtained by Sergei Oldenburg of Russia are mainly currently stored in the Hermitage Museum in Russia. According to the two volumes of Dunhuang Artworks Collected in the State Hermitage Museum of Russia [9] published by Shanghai Classics Publishing House (which include No. 45-111 in 2 American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 5, 2020 Volume One, No. 112-249 in Volume Two, and No. 1-71 of Black and White Plates), these mostly consist of murals, silk paintings, paper paintings, linen paintings, and textiles, 271 of which (including fragments) are surviving paintings of the Sutra Cave. The Dunhuang Texts in the Russian Collection also includes several line drawings and engravings. This catalogue includes the collection numbers, plate indexes, and Chinese inscriptions of the surviving Dunhuang paintings (a total of 374) published in the The Dunhuang Art Collection in the State Hermitage Museum of Russia and The Russian Collection of Dunhuang Texts, and serves as a basic tool for the study and appreciation of surviving Dunhuang paintings in the Russian collection.
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