At a meeting of the Literary Department of the American Woman's Club held on Thursday, Miss Gertrude Oldroyd read a' paper upon "Mystical Buddhist Art of the Tang Dynasty."
She said that the period of the Tang dynasty, A.D. 618 to 905, was the most illustrious in Chinese history. It had been called the Chinese golden age when art and literature flourished. The astern. capital, Loyang had been rebuilt in great 2 magnificence, and a vast commerce had been established with India and peoples to the north and west. Buddhism throve with renewed vigour.
The art of the period was chiefly in paintings. Both landscape and portrait painting was strongly coloured by Buddhist mysticism, and although few if any actual originals remained some copies by later artists had preserved for them enough to indicate the general style and composition of the period.
The name of Wu Tao-tzu stood at the head of the list of painters, and other artists mentioned were Wong Wei, painter and poet, Han Kan, who excelled in depiction of horses, and Vu Li-pen one of the earliest in Tang period. His brother Vu Li-ti ranked equally high.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.