Читать книгу Central Asian Art - Vladimir Lukonin - Страница 10

According to biblical legend, God shaped the first man from the dust of the ground. This myth explains the conception of the generation of this distant epoch, clay being the essential material used for modelling. In Central Asia, nature has been generous and clay that can be used by man was plentiful everywhere. This is why in this area the sculptures were mainly in clay rather than in wood, plaster or stone.

Statuary

Hellenism was a powerful inspiration in the development of plastic art in Central Asia. The importation of Greek statues and their local execution by sculptors of the Hellenistic school have been corroborated by archaeological discoveries.

Hellenistic contributions

Hellenistic art excerts its influence directly in Bactria and in the eastern regions of the Parthian realm. For instance, the Head of Heracles from the Khalchayan Palace is remarkable for the expression of the face which bears the dramatic imprint of inner sufferings, a dominating accomplishment of Hellenistic sculpture.

But this aesthetic conception would soon blend into a purely Asiatic understanding of the tasks and forms of art. The representations of Heracles and Athena in the Khalchayan Palace already offer serious modifications to the local culture: Athena’s face is far from having the majesty of Zeus’ daughter. Only the form of her helmet makes her recognisable.

At the beginning of our era several important centres of culture already existed. At Khalchayan, reliefs were mainly realised in painted clay. They were among the mural compositions with numerous figures where the heads of the characters were worked in high relief and even in round bosse. The themes of sculptural cycles essentially celebrate the ruling dynasty of the monarchs at the beginning of the Kushan Empire. There were scenes of solemn ceremonies and heroic exploits: the royal couple on their thrones, their family and noblemen, a victorious battle. On the frieze, children are represented wearing heavy garlands on their shoulders. Inside the curves of the garland are small half-figures of disguised people, satyrs, actors, and young girls with musical instruments.

All are part of a feast, a theatrical representation, or a remembrance of the Dionysiac games. This kind of frieze came from the eastern region of the Parthian kingdom as far as the Kharezm Province. At Staraia Nisa and Toprak-Kala matrices in baked or unbaked clay have been discovered; the first are moulds of an actor’s mask, his mouth open, the other a simple face with a flat nose, pointed ears, and satyr’s horns.

Realistic and expressive, the sculptures of Khalchayan do not define the authenticity of the portrait but only show an ethnic type and the model’s age and temperament.

Sacrificial table leg, 5^th-3^rd century BCE. The Historical Museum of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Sacrificial table leg, 5^th-3^rd century BCE. The Historical Museum of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Buddhist influence

During the first centuries of our era, Bactrian sculpture received a strong Buddhist influence from India. The statues and reliefs at Air-tam and Stary Termez follow the Buddhist canons, but at the same time keep the stamp of the local school of sculpture.

The high-relief in white stone of the Fayaz-tepe monastery at Termez, represents Buddha seated in the shade of a tree surrounded by monks who look at him with a very canonical humility. The buildings of the Air-tam monastery are also decorated with sculptures in white stone. Excavations brought to light fragments of a great statue of Buddha and more recently a monumental block with an inscription in Bactrian-Kushan where Huvishka, king of the Kushan, Shodiya, the founder of the monastery, and the master Mehrzad, probably a sculptor, are mentioned.

The sculptures over the inscription are supposed to represent Shodiya and his wife (the figures are only half preserved). The legs are naked. The woman wears an ample garment. Her legs are crossed, bracelets adorn her ankles, characteristic details of Hindu art. Using real people as models of minor gods of Buddhist mythology, Bactrian sculptors were less restricted by the canons and were freer in their creations. Executed with the technique of sculpture in clay or plaster, the inhabitants of the sky (deva) of Dalverzin-Tepe, with their young and tender faces and curly hair divulge the models of Praxitele’s school. The delicate sculpture, creating a rich clair-obscure effect, the slight smile, the pensive gaze, all this gives a great spirituality to the faces. Representing the laity, the sculptors of Dalverzin-Tepe try to create not realistic but idealised portraits.

Although the individual lines of the face are preserved, signs of age, character or emotional state are absent. The social position of each character on the hierarchic scale is expressed by its size. The members of the dynasty are larger than life, their wives half their size, the noblemen even smaller.

Head of a Kushan prince, 1^st-2^nd century. Plaster. Fine Arts Institute, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Buddha and monks from Fayaz-Tepe, 1^st-2^nd century. Museum of the History of the Peoples of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Khwarezm sculptures

The process gradually leading to abstraction in representations appears in the Khwarezm sculptures. The man’s head of Giaour-Kala (1^st and 2^nd century) with the face’s plasticity carefully elaborated is full of a nervous tension that seems to reflect the mood of the model. The sculptures of Khwarezm at Toprak-Kala (2^nd and 3^rd century) where the central theme is the celebration of the dynasty in power, are differently perceived.

An example is the plaster fragment of a great king’s head crowned by a conical royal toque. The face marked by years with eyes wide open and knitted brows is a bit stylised and conventional.

In spite of the diversity of their aspects, the figures of military chiefs, sovereigns, and gods were distinguished by the absolute impassibility of their faces and their distant giving them a certain transcendency.

Sogdian sculptures

Sogdian sculptures in Central Asia were already noted in the 3^rd century and early 4^th century because of their styles. In the sanctuary of the old town of Erkurgan, near Karachi, fragments of clay statues have been discovered dating from this time. The fragment of a head, summarily sculpted and enhanced by painting posseses something archaic that reflects the style of the ancient east. Two men’s heads found at the same place on a great flagstone of clay show the Sogdian ethnic type: the face has wide eyebrows and almond eyes, a flat nose, long twisted moustache, and pointed beard.

They probably represent noblemen, as is testified by their crowns bordered with a strand of pearls. The plasticity of the faces is expressive.

Bactrian sculptures

Plastic art in Central Asia presents notable changes in the 3^rd and early 4^th centuries. Even though the acquired knowledge of the preceding epochs are preserved, new artistic norms appear. This can be seen distinctly in the sculptures discovered in the sun-driedbrick houses large enough to include several reception rooms which contain many luxurious decorative objects. The clay statues are painted. The heads are in rounde-bosse and high relief. The compositions include the royal couple, and a group of women (with two dancers and two servants). Compared with Bactrian statues of high dignitaries of the preceding epochs, those of Kuev-Kurgan present another ethnic type.

Furthermore, these people wear different garments, in particular the headgear of the king, with two wings, as in Central Asia during the 4^th century. The heavy eyelids half hide the almond eyes, letting out a piercing gaze which gave the face a particular expression.

The early Middle Ages

The period of the early Middle Ages introduces a great number of new social ideas in the East to which the masters of the artistic culture reacted with great attention.

From the 6^th through the 8^th centuries, painting and the decorative arts blended with architecture and entered into decoration, not only in cultural edifices but also in civil construction: palaces, castles, and private houses of rich people, as well as bazaars and caravanserai.

Ossuary in the form of a seated person, 1^st-2^nd century. Museum of the History of the Peoples of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Head of a lion, 7^th century. Fine Arts Institute, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Buddhist art

Monumental art always maintains its place in Buddhist communities. The Buddhist constructions at Ak-Beshim, the Shakhristan Citadel at Kuva, Ajina Tepe, and Kalai-Karfirnigan are decorated with painted clay sculptures. These decorations portray the traditional iconography of the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, monks, orants, and other deities.

The Buddha’s statues, representations particularly revered, had considerable dimensions. In this way the zealous defenders of Buddhism wanted to increase the authority of their religion that was losing its prestige in Central Asia and among its adepts. The representation of Buddha followed the canon, elaborated and fixed during the first centuries of our era according to three conceptions: sitting Buddha in a meditative attitude, having acquired Truth; Standing Buddha, bearer and preacher of this Truth; Buddha lying on his right side in a position of supreme serenity whist waiting for nirvana.

Buddha is shown with a serene inward-looking expression, slightly smiling, hair arranged in a series of artistically-placed spiral curls, contrasting with the smooth face and the ancient expression of profound meditation and great wisdom that were given to him in the previous epochs.

The same contrasts can be seen in the Bodhisattva’s faces. Their silhouettes remain lithe and well built but the shape of the body is only outlined, whilst necklaces and pleats of garments tightened with a belt are elaborated in detail. Secular faces are presented in a different manner. They are more realistic in spite of their idealised lines, probably executed from nature such as, for instance, women’s heads from Ajina Tepe: round, naive faces with a little smile and a tender gaze. The faces of Kashyapa, a fire worshipping monk and a Bodhisattva, are marked by age and meditation.