40 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



One hundred and seventy-eight Japanese prints have been 

 mounted on sunk mounts and lettered with the artists' names and 

 references to Register and Catalogue. 



One Indian painting has been mounted' on a sunk mount. 



II. — A cquisitions. 



At the beginning o£ the year the paintings, drawings, and 

 woodcuts allotted to the Sub-department as a result o£ the partition 

 of the Stein Collection between the Government of India and the 

 Museum, were finally taken over and incorporated. The acquisition 

 of this precious series of works of ancient Buddhist art enormously 

 increases the value and importance of the collections in the Sub- 

 department. 



The total number of paintings, prints, &c., acquired daring the 

 year was 477, of which the following are the most important. 



The Stein Collection. 



Frescoes. — Twenty-one, mostly fragments from the Khadalik 

 site. The most important frescoes are two compositions, represen- 

 ting monks and hermits, from Mingoi, and a standing Bodhisattva 

 from Ferhad Beg. 



Paintings and Drawings on Silk, Paper or Linen. — Two hundred 

 and thirty-one. These are all part of the treasure discovered by 

 Sir Aurel Stein in 1908 in the rock temple of The T]u)u:<and 

 Buddhas at Tun-huang, on the western frontier of China. Several 

 bear dates of the 9th and 10th centuries, and the great majority 

 undoubtedly belong to the latter part of the T'ang dynasty. Apart 

 from the Tun-huang paintings, almost nothing survives from the 

 T'ang period, the grandest period of Chinese art. Many of these 

 paintings show the local styles and mixed influences prevailing in 

 the Central Asian regions ; but others belong to the main tradition 

 of Chinese Buddhist painting, and the finest of these are of singular 

 beauty. One painting in distemper on linen is of the well-defined 

 Tibetan type, and is possibly the most ancient specimen now exis- 

 ting. The collection includes also some Tibetan outline drawings, 

 and part of a series of small paintings of Nepalese type. 



From the point of view of subject these paintings, which throw 

 new light on the history of Mahayana Buddhism, may be divided 

 into four groups (1) Pictures of the Western Paradise, or Assem- 

 blages of Divine Beings, (2) Figures of Bodhisattvas, es})ecial]y 

 of Avalokitesvara or Kuan-yin, and of the Lokapalas, (3j Scenes 

 from the Jatakas, or stories of the successive incarnations of the 

 Buddha, of especial interest from the fact that Chinese costume and 

 conventions are used throughout, affording a valuable sidelight on 

 the secular art of the period ; (4) Miscellaneous drawings ; a man 

 leading a camel and a man leading a horse ; a study of human 

 proportions ; drawings of mudnis, charms, &c. 



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