Mr. D. S. MacCollSource: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 47, No. 269 (Aug., 1925), pp. 103-104Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/862563 .

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SHORTER NOTICES SIR AUREL STEIN'S THIRD CEN-

TRAL ASIAN EXPEDITION.-On July 14 there was opened in the Ceramic Gallery of the British Museum an admirably arranged display of objects chosen from those collected by Sir Aurel Stein during the years 1913-16. It represents his more portable finds over a vast area, including Eastern Turkestan, Western China, the Pgmir region, and North-Eastern Persia-much of which area was dominated at one time or another by the Chinese. Though outstanding importance cannot be claimed for any one object, the exhibition as a whole throws invaluable light on many aspects of early Chinese art and craftsmanship.

Fragments of painted pottery from a wind- eroded desert just outside the south-western corner of Afghanistan closely resemble some reported from Baluchistan by Noetling in 1898 (Zeitschrift f. Ethnologie, pp. 460-471). They are of special interest now that the attention of students is centred on the recent discoveries by Dr. Andersson of similar neolithic relics in the provinces of Honan and Kansu. The marked community of decoration between these and other pre-historic finds at Anau (Transcaspia), at Tripolje (South-West Russia), and at various Mesopotamian sites supports belief in a uniform culture widespread over immense stretches of Eurasia. One of the potsherds now exhibited bears the painted figure of an ibex and another 'that of a snake.

Perhaps the most illuminating lot of exhibits are those recovered from a Turfan cemetery near the present village of Astdna. Associated documents prove them to date from the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. So dry were the soil and the climate that objects which escaped in- terference by grave-robbers look as if they were made yesterday. Especially is this freshness remarkable in two paintings on paper, in the painted designs on some stucco animals, and in some fancy pastries, which appear appetizing even now some twelve centuries since they left the baker's hands. The aforesaid paintings on paper, together with two larger paintings on silk (each about 6 ft. high), provide evidence, hitherto unknown, that certain motives of Han tomb-decoration remained in vogue at least four or five hundred years later; for they correspond with scenes among the famous Shantung sculp- tures. Here we have represented again the cosmological myth of Fu Hsi and Nii Wa. One holds the set-square and the other the com- passes, and their bodies tail off below the waist into

,two serpent-forms together entwined. Then tenants of the tombs are shown being

waited upon by servants, and surrounded with the paraphernalia of domestic life on eirth, and actual models of these varied objects, destined for the service of the dead in another world, were found buried with them, and now are dis- played alongside the pictures. From the same source come fragments of a secular painting on silk which was reproduced last June in I'HE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE. There are, too, some silk fabrics printed with designs of Sasanian type, and some Byzantine gold coins used for placijng in the mouths of corpses. These are interesting proofs of interchange between West and East, and ithe fabrics serve to show the high degree of technical attainment in colour- printing from wood-blocks reached during the f'ang period. It seems not too rash to assume that equally accomplished colour-prints on paper were produced at the same time.

W. PERCEVAL YETTS.

MR. A. M. DANIEL.-The authorities of the National Gallery are to be congratulated on their interesting appointment of Mr. A. M. Daniel to fill a vacant place on the board of trustees. Mr. Daniel is peculiarly qualified to occupy such a position. He knows the contents of the National Gallery as few know them, he is a man of wide culture and of many ideas, and he has not only energy and enthusiasm, but that commonsense without which energy and enthusiasm in a public servant are apt to do more harm than good. Further, he enjoys the friendship of a very large circle of those interested in art, and will be another useful link between Trafalgar Square and the outside world. That combination of candour and geniality which have marked Mr. Daniel among his fellow-students is just the characteristic needed at the present moment by a trustee of the National Gallery.

MR. D. S. MAcCOLL is to be congratulated on having had conferred upon him by Oxford University the honorary degree of D.Litt. This tribute to his scholarship and to his literary and artistic achievements will not come as a surprise to his friends and admirers, who know how richly he has deserved such official recog- nition of his innumerable services. Shortly after the degree was conferred, the King appointed Mr. MacColl to be a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Marquis Curzon. Since this Commission must continue to exist, it is well that it should include men of worth and character, and for that reason we welcome the appointment of Mr. MacColl. The King at

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the same time appointed Mr. Percy Scott Worthington, F.R.I.B.A., "to be an addi- tional member."

CORRECTION.-On page xxii of our July issue a book published by Messrs. Karl W. Hiersemann,

Leipsig, entitled, " Martin Bollert; Lederschnitt- bdinde des xiv. Jahrhunderts," was announced with the price as R.M. 4.55. This was a misprint for which we, not the publishers of the book, were re- sponsible. The price is actually R.M. 55.--EDITOR.

THE LITERATURE OF ART CHINESE SCULPTURE. BY LEIGH ASHIITON. CHINESE SCULPTURE FROM THE FIFTH TO THE FOURTEENTH

CENTURY. By OSVALD SIRIN. Vol 1, b08 pp. + frontis- piece; Vols. 11, III, IV, 623 pl. (Benn Bros.) k14 14s.

Dr. Siren is a newcomer into the field of Far Eastern studies. For his first serious venture he has elected to publish his researches upon Chinese sculpture and to concentrate his main effort upon the branch of that art engendered by the rise and expansion of Buddhism in China. His results are contained in one volume of text and three of illustration. The impor- tance of this repository of documents for the archaeologist is great, but from an aesthetic point of view the effect is a little paralyzing. The reputation of few painters could stand the exhibi- tion of the sweepings of their studios, nor should we obtain much gratification, if asked to see a group of crucifixes carved by a local sexton or verger. It has always been the opinion of many interested in the Far East that on the primA facie evidence of existing sculpture Japanese Buddhist art is immeasurably superior to Chinese. For there are still preserved in temples in Japan many masterpieces of the finest sculptors of their day, whereas there is no single Chinese statue in existence, which we know to be the work of one of the great Chinese sculptors; indeed, we know the names of only a few of these artists. But it is because we know that Japanese sculpture is a mirror, which reflects Chinese prototypes, and because there are a small quantity of nameless Chinese master- pieces, which seem on a higher asthetic plane than any Japanese work of art, that the reputa- tion of Chinese sculpture has been jealously preserved; for no country has suffered so many and such severe iconoclastic persecutions as China. The vast quantity of third-rate sculp- ture here published will provide a handle for the anti-Sinophils, which they will not be slow to turn.

Dr. Siren is doubly unfortunate in that the reproductions in his book are so poor in quality. His original photographs, which I was privi- leged to see, when he first arrived in England, were admirable, and the many official photo- graphs, to which he has had access, are avail- able to anyone who wishes to satisfy himself as to the weakness of the execution. Messrs. Benn have recently begun to have their collo- types done in France, presumably from motives of economy. If this is so, then they would be well advised to try Austria, where the process is

done cheaply and well. For since their first essay under this new system, M. B6n6dite's book on Rodin, there has been a steady deterioration in the quality of their reproduction. Lines are altered, depths disappear, detail is glossed over, a sharp photograph becomes dull and flat. It is to be hoped that the Eumorfopoulos Catalogue will be better produced.

The author has arranged his text on a system, which is clear and intelligible; first an aesthetical and historical introduction, then a catalogue of the plates with brief descriptions, in which the primary arrangement is chronological, but within which the author endeavours to construct an inner frame-work of provincial schools. Where so much pioneer work has been done in various articles and museum bulletins, not to mention previous publications, it would have seemed natural to print a bibliography. It is strange that such a name as Chavannes appears only once in a footnote, while Bushell, Goloubew and others do not appear at all; par- ticularly as Lhe author has obviously absorbed their information. In a subject that is still so controversial, the reader is entitled to know where to Iread every side of the questions at issue.

The first part of Dr. Sir6n's introductory material is devoted to an essay on " general characteristics," a considerable portion of which is concerned with aesthetics. Few can tread this thorny field as firmly, yet as delicately, as Mr. Roger Fry, but much can be forgiven an author's bad expression of theory, if the practical application of it is successful. But here Dr. Sir6n seems to fail in both respects. The central pillar of his aesthetic structure is what he calls " rhythm," and of the practical effect of this force on sculpture he says: " Of the greatest importance for the transmission of the inner mood into qualities of rhythm are the

garments and draperies of the figure." This means very little, but the vagueness of expres- sion is further increased, when it is clear that the author has a somewhat hazy conception of how this rhythmic drapery is affected by ques- tions of style and period. For on p. xxi we find him saying of the rhythm of Wei drapery "that the linear arrangements recall quite closely the convention known from early Romanesque sculpture," while on p. liv he talks of " the parallelism between the rhythm of Northern Wei sculpture and that of Gothic

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