Of the 14 original frescoes the! two finest are at the top of the stairs Bodhisattva holding the wheel of the law and an extraordinarily' beautiful. Avalokitesvara (Buddha) with a vase, There is also a sai with two attendants bearing off ings that is a triumph of victori: design; and a fine Lokopala brandi shing 'a sword. The Guardian of the Four Quarters stands apparently. ina gale of wind, with his scarlet draperies billowing round his. gigantic figure.
Al these frescoes are big—10 to 12 feet by three—but the great fresco from Chili, Avalokitesvara standing in glory between two Bod hisattvas, is immense, nearly 14 fect, by 14! This surely is the finest example of Chinese primitive painting' that has ever come to Europe, and can compare favourably with fre oes of the primitives. It has a dignity and grandeur of conception that can only be matched by th: great T'ang figure of the Lohan, now in the British Bfuseum, To the Western mind Chinese art has stood, too long, for something, pretty, grotesque, amusing, artificial, 'These mural paintings' are intelligible to all minds and all ages, There is nothing pretty or grotesque; they are monumental in their restraint. The figures impress. the eye with dignity and expressive sense of grace. posture—the which is the essence of Tang art. No one can shrug his shoulders and say, "Chinese, One painting does not interest me." Like or dislike, these frescoes cannot bbe ignored.
England, unfortunately, has no! museum devoted to carly Aniatic art} like the Guimet or Cernuschi museums in Paris, but the loans an bequests of Mr. Eumorphopulos far towards giving the public the opportunity of revising their views fon Chinese art in all its forms, and of realising that Chinese art of the 18th century was largely a period of imaginative decadence, DF
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.