Tomb Wall Painting A portfolio of about 50 colour plates. msx

Beijing, China: Shen Shee Museum, 1974. Portfolio. In exceptionally good condition. Portfolio, [37.5cm/15inches], of roughly 50+ colour plates. Please feel free to inquire as to particulars and/or additional photographs. ... During the Tang dynasty, as a golden age in Chinese civilization, Chinese painting developed dramatically, both in subject matter and technique. The advancements in technique and style that characterized Tang painting had a lasting influence in the art of other countries, especially in East Asia (Korea, Japan, Vietnam) and central Asia. A considerable amount of literary and documentary information about Tang painting has survived, but very few works, especially of the highest quality. A walled-up cave in the Mogao Caves complex at Dunhuang was discovered by Sir Aurel Stein, which contained a vast haul, mostly of Buddhist writings, but also some banners and paintings, making much the largest group of paintings on silk to survive. These are now in the British Museum and elsewhere. They are not of court quality, but show a variety of styles, including those with influences from further west. As with sculpture, other survivals showing Tang style are in Japan, though the most important, at Nara, was very largely destroyed in a fire in 1949. The rock-cut cave complexes and royal tombs also contain many wall-paintings. Court painting mostly survives in what are certainly or arguably copies from much later, though the front section of the famous portrait of the Emperor Xuanzong's horse Night-Shining White is probably an original by Han Kan of 740-760.