S6 
House & Carden 
ANCIENT CHINESE ART FOR MODERNS 
The Work of a Thousand Years Ago 
and Its Meaning in the Home Today 
PEYTON BOSWELL 
I T is related that once upon a time when a 
vain person from the Occident said to a 
learned Chinese gehtleman, “When do you 
think your nation will become civilized?” the 
savant replied, “Our people passed through 
your civilization three thousand years ago.” 
If the same question had related to art, and 
if a person used to the pictorial representation 
of Europe had asked, “When do you think 
your artists will learn how to paint?” the 
Chinese scholar might have replied, “Our 
artists passed through your conception of what 
constitutes painting three thousand years ago; 
they painted their best works a thousand and 
more years ago, and since that time, under the 
influence of your \\'estern art, they haven’t 
been doing quite so well.” Which would have 
been the absolute truth. 
The noblest and the best in Chinese art was 
produced a thousand and more years ago. 
There was a freedom and spirit and fine im¬ 
agination then that has never been manifested 
since. Europe in the time of I^ouis XV de¬ 
veloped a perfect craze for the art of China, 
but it w'as not the old art; it was the decadent 
art of the Ching (Manchu) dynasty. It was 
beautiful and it was fine, and it had a splendid 
influence on the art of Europe (Chippendale 
{Continued on page 100) 
(Right) A Chinese-Greco Buddhist head, dat¬ 
ing from the \st Century of the T’ang Dynasty 
(618-906 A. D.). Courtesy of Parish-Watson, 
Inc. 
The way early Chinese sculptors elimi¬ 
nated unnecessary details is seen in its 
pottery figure of this Buddhistic disciple, 
dating from the Vang Dynasty. Cour¬ 
tesy of Lia-Yuan Galleries 
A T’ang sculpture in wood of 
a Buddhistic goddess (618- 
906 A. D.). Now in the col¬ 
lection of Mrs. J. S. Gardner. 
Courtesy of Parish-Watson, 
Inc. 
An arrestbig air of abstraction is found in the 
face and simple lines of this figure of a Lo- 
Han, a Buddhistic deity, from the Wei Dynas¬ 
ty (Ath Century A. D.). Courtesy of Parish- 
Watson, Jnc. 
(Left) An irofi head of a 
Buddhistic deity from the 
T’ang Dynasty (618-906 A. 
D.) Courtesy of Parish- 
Watson, Inc. 
Head of Buddha, dat¬ 
ing from the Lung 
Dynasty (960 - 1127 
A. D.), a characteris¬ 
tic fragment. Cour¬ 
tesy of the Kelekian 
Gallery 
