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at varakhsha some of the rooms in the main apartments of the varakhsha palace which consisted of several detached, buildings are decorated with high relief alabaster stucco panels and carved woodwork as well as with paintings benches are inserted into the. Walls of one room the area above, them divided into two registers or horizontal rows both painted red in the, upper register was a procession of animals little of which survives and in the lower splendidly attired, hunters, seated. On elephants pursued spirited leopards and creatures of the griffin family some miles kilometres east of samarkand in a once fertile now desert tract of land the ruins of the great feudal castle. Of mug survive among the objects excavated there was part of a wooden shield. With the painted figure of a rider state hermitage museum which foreshadows a type commonly found in islāmic persian book illumination mounted on a splendidly caparisoned horse he wears, a tunic of local cut and is equipped with a long sword two daggers two bows and a quiver full of arrows he is wasp waisted in the manner of figures depicted in murals of varakhsha and pendzhikent at pendzhikent a site close to mug. And some miles kilometres east of samarkand sogdian architecture can be seen to. Advantage the desert engulfed city contained several large temples built of rectangular adobe bricks and blocks of beaten clay the bricks were used for vaults and domes while the flat sections of the roofs were made of rafters supported by wooden pillars or piers! Some of which had been set in stone bases many. Of the more important. Houses were two storied a square room measuring by feet eight metres by eight metres had served as a temple sanctuary although in a series of rooms connected to it some fragmentary religious paintings survived the paintings in another temple are better preserved they depict the death the sogdian burial rite and the rebirth of a youthful syavush more than figures of this vast composition survive some representing sogdian noblemen some a group of turks, a number of the sogdians are seated cross legged in the, oriental manner and hold gold and silver vessels of sāsānian shape in three fingers of one hand the men's single, close fitting sogdian tunics resemble garments depicted in paintings of the buddhist temples of bāmiān and eastern turkistan notably at kizil and, kuca the style and in some cases the subject matter of these sogdian scenes must have influenced the illuminators of such, islāmic persian works as the shāh nāmeh another set of murals is unusual in that it was executed in high relief and then coloured it shows human, beings sea monsters and fish with the waves. Of the sea rendered in lower, relief than the figures yet another mural depicts a feast against a black background a king and several priests sit cross legged, under a canopy a woman harpist some musicians and dice players and a procession of elephants complete the scene by placing light figures against dark or vivid backgrounds sogdian artists evolved a distinct form of perspective a, study, of the religious paintings shows that central asian zoroastrianism retained elements from the earlier indigenous cult of the sun and moon some of the scenes in the secular, works are linked by their subject matter but not their style to a small group of older siberian gold and bronze, b shaped buckles and to. The siberian and ordos plaques that are thought to illustrate local epics other secular scenes give full expression to sogdian interest in the splendour of contemporary court life and prowess in hunting and warfare the love of overall decoration. And of animal motifs is as prevalent as in nomadic art details incorporated in sogdian paintings proclaim the eclecticism of the society they depict and for which they were created sāsānian. Influence from persia is seen in crowns trimmed with ribbons veils and bells in the styling and trimming of hair and beards and in many of their. Vessel shapes the helmets worn by, the warriors in the pendzhikent libation scene resemble those depicted in the murals of eastern turkistan the clothes follow local fashions and certain horse trappings display disks the shapes, of which recall nomadic types sogdian textiles are known to have been in great demand among their, neighbours sāsānian motifs must have reached sogdian weavers by way of imports from, persia, indirectly routed through parthia and also from zoroastrians seeking protection in sogdiana from persian persecution these motifs often figure both. On surviving textiles and on those recorded. In the paintings the murals at varakhsha for. Example include motifs taken from textiles and a th century mural from balalyk tepe displays the head of a tusked boarlike animal set in a roundel that is almost identical to that on a sāsānian fabric found at astana in eastern turkistan between the th. And th centuries the sogdians, made dried brick caskets shaped like rectangular rooms to contain ossuaries or urns for the bones of the dead the sides and lids of the ossuaries were decorated the ornamentation on an ossuary from bia naiman state, hermitage museum has so many points, in common with the decorations on a series of silver vessels that were until recently assigned to bactria, that the latter have come to be accepted as sogdian several ewers have niches containing nude women rendered in a markedly indian style thereby recalling many a carved ivory plaque from bagrām very similar niches adorn the bia naiman ossuary but these contain crowned figures in both cases the, niches owe their form to western influence but those on the ossuary, are formed of columns surmounted. By capitals upholding pearl studded arches while on the ewers the central asian rosette replaces the capitals and, the pearls sculpture. Both in relief and in the round was widely produced in sogdiana much of the earlier work takes the form of, panels or friezes made of alabaster stucco and wood rosettes roundels disks and vegetation provide the chief motifs audience chambers and large reception rooms often contained statues. In the, round even the statues attached to the wall had the appearance of being worked in the! Round the earliest wooden caryatids or columns in human form are found at pendzhikent the caryatids in the form of. Women have their hair elaborately dressed and although nude at the waist. They wear boleros as well as close, fitting heavily trimmed skirts and splendid necklaces of indian appearance once again these figures recall those on bagrām's ivory plaques and buddhist online statuettes of the st to th centuries fergana and chorasmia fergana produced much pottery of quality but as yet there have been no finds of, comp le importance to those in sogdiana its arts appear to have paralleled the place des developments in the more prosperous more heavily populated and more highly urbanized state of chorasmia later khwārezm chorasmia's, defensive architecture was particularly notable its great citadels and palaces were enclosed. By two lines of walls strengthened by massive towers that were fitted with lookout posts and firing slits and topped by archers'. Galleries chorasmian entrance gates were labyrinthine in plan many of these splendid buildings have disappeared beneath the desert's encroaching sands toprak kala recently excavated near tashauz is thought to have served not only as a citadel but perhaps as chorasmia's capital until about the th century defended by stout walls the palace of sun dried bricks was equipped with three lookout towers, the ground floor of this two storied building acted as a foundation for, the living rooms and storerooms above many of the rooms were adorned with sculpture its most impressive room the hall of, kings had niches fitted with grills ranged along the tops of its walls to hold statues of chorasmia's rulers and notables the alabaster hall contained many sculptures executed both in the round and in relief a hall of victories contained statues of kings seated in the presence of a goddess of victory statues of warriors carrying shields adorned the warriors', hall all of the chorasmian figural works are so lifelike that it is evident that portraiture had reached a high state of development by the rd and th centuries ad surviving decorations in the fortified manorhouse of teshik kala display the. Palmette rosette lotus and ace of spade motifs that the seljuqs later carried westward to anatolia and beyond in the th and th centuries bactria the most hellenized of these states in western turkistan and afghanistan was bactria its fine coinage for example was distinctly hellenistic in style and bactrian silversmiths were often influenced as much by roman as greek hellenistic metalwork alexander the great annexed kābul to bactria and founded alexandria kapisu a city astride the indian caravan route to serve as the province's capital the multiracialism of kapisu's population is reflected in the origins of the objects found there imports included? Articles from india china and the greco roman world especially from, syria artistic conventions characteristic of all these countries blended with the local central asian ones with the indian conventions predominating to create bactria's own distinctive style in sculpture whether in alabaster stone ivory or wood its mural paintings are wholly buddhist in content but they often contain features? That link them to fundukistan in india and the sāsānian persian world the decorative arts were highly developed in bactria many of their sun dried brick houses were large enough to include several? Reception rooms which contained many luxurious decorative. Objects potters remained attached to animal forms derived from nomadic art the large production of votive statuettes especially representations of anahita and. Syavush may be partly attributed to the belief that zoroaster was born in balkh this tradition was, also evident at merv until the invasion of central african american asia the bactrians mastered the technique of working metals at an early date a th century bc lion griffin british museum in cast, bronze is descended from a scytho altaic prototype and so too is a pair of slightly earlier gold, armlets british museum embellished with inlay from the oxus treasure a series of silver dishes state hermitage museum from the end of the st, millennium bc are on the other hand decorated with scenes from the tragedies of the greek dramatist euripides and greco roman. Mythology rendered in a hellenized style other silver dishes employ indian, motifs such. As elephants by the th century these diverse ornamental motifs had fused as on a silver gilt bowl, state hermitage museum dated from the th to th century ad into a kushān style that may well have provided the basis for persia's later rey figural pottery style kushān the kushāns replaced the! Greeks in bactria about bc they are thought to have been of yüeh chih stock with a strong admixture of hephthalites śaka and tocharian one branch of this group migrated to the tarim basin and founded a short lived empire while the other under the name of kushān gained control of. Central asia capturing a section of the great trade route leading from india, and china to the, west the kushāns derived much of their revenue from the transit dues they exacted from the caravans crossing their territory which often were carrying supplies of chinese gold silver! And nickel from the tarim oasis towns to the seleucid persians about bc the first caravan to carry, silk from china direct to persia, passed through territory that had belonged to the seleucids but was now divided between the kushāns and parthians kushān art reached its fullest development in the nd century ad when the great king kaniṣka is believed to have reigned a magnificent almost life size now headless sculpture of kaniṣka archaeological museum mathurā shows him wearing an elegant version of nomadic dress his kingdom extended from central asia to include gandhāra and mathurā where the seleucids. Had so firmly established hellenistic art that western influence continued to maintain its hold even in the reign of the first members of india's gupta dynasty when mahāyāna buddhism reached gandhāra during the th and th, centuries ad its sculptors turned to the hellenistic world as a matter of course for a visual conception of buddha and quickly evolved several hellenistic versions in the. Popular apollo version buddha is long faced, long nosed and has wavy hair this type survived fantasy into the th century and penetrated as far as kashmir and turkistan a school of, religious sculpture equal in importance to that of gandhāra developed almost simultaneously at mathurā its earliest buddhist images are virtually contemporary with the earliest ones produced in gandhāra but in mathurā indian influences predominate. The portrayal of. Buddha in the mathurān style is softer yet more direct the features are, more eastern eyebrows extend in a continuous sinous line hair is straight, the earlobes are. Elongated and an enigmatic smile replaces the withdrawn expression of the hellenized buddhas of gandhāra. While the sculptors of mathurā used a red sandstone the gandhārans worked in limestone or a local gray schist they generally chose the latter for. The small uniform sized panels with which they faced their stūpas and vishanas carving them with scenes of buddha's life on the panels the story unfolds from left to right each scene being framed, within either trees leaves or corinthian columns sometimes linked by arches these religious narratives often include furniture and details drawn from contemporary life the figures which use gestures of indian origin to convey, emotion display racial characteristics that range from indo european to mongolian many figures are presented in the frontal position favoured. By parthian artists, while others appear, three quarter face. As museum of contemporary in hellenistic art some wear hellenistic robes and. Headdresses such as those worn in palmyra an ancient city in syria the gandhāran style of sculpture attack was no longer produced after this area was invaded. By the white huns in the th century central afghanistan is rich in kushān sites āteshkadehye sorkh kowtal situated in the qondūz valley close to the kābul mazār e sharīf, road is dated by an, inscription to the time of. Kaniṣka's reign the architecture of the region was very, highly, developed there the town was protected by a double row of walls that ascended the hill on which it stood the most impressive site within gallery hotel the wall was occupied by a dynastic fire temple built. To an achaemenid plan in large blocks of well dressed stone and approached by an imposing staircase within columns. Topped arts and crafts by corinthian capitals supported the roof numerous sculptures had originally adorned the interior those worked with floral and animal motifs conforming to the gandhāran tradition. While figural, works followed scytho parthian posters and photo galleries to some extent hellenistic traditions photograph colossal buddha now destroyed carved from the rock at bāmīān afghanistan th … colossal buddha now destroyed landscape carved from the rock at bāmīān afghanistan th … the buddhist art of central afghanistan was admirably represented at. Bāmīān where mani the ian founder of the manichaean religion probably lived and encouraged the. Growth of a religious pictorial art in the rd century ad at both the. Eastern and western approaches to bāmīān a huge statue of buddha as ruler of the world was cut into the face. Of the rock the smaller statue measured feet about metres and. Dated from soon after! The town's foundation in illustrations the th century ad landscapes the other, measured feet metres and dated from the th century in their commanding monumentality both reflected the influence of the mathurān image of king kaniṣka and the portrait sculpture of sāsānian kings and parthian notables clip famous iststraces of painting showed sāsānian, and indian influences in the rock hewn niche behind the earlier buddha in the statues were destroyed by afghanistan's ruling taliban who regarded them as idolatrous regardless of manichaean influence sāsānian elements prevailed at bāmīān between the th and th centuries at dūktar e nowshirvān near bāmīān a th century painting of a sāsānian king flanked by attendants survives the murals in bāmīān's th century temple of kakrak include one of a deified king of sāsānian appearance while others display the figure of buddha set within a circle and wearing a, costume of the sāsānian type sāsānian motifs of, paired birds, and griffins placed in medallions or pearl circlets are common in the murals at imgur enlil buddha wears a close, fitting tunic resembling that worn by the sāsānian king depicted on! The rock carvings of tāq e bostān the traces of hellenism which are also evident in these wall paintings began to disappear by the th century! When sāsānian influence gradually gave way to the gupta style of india stemming from gupta art is the practice adopted at bāmīān painting between the th and th centuries. Of painting in the dome of a sanctuary a buddha within a? Circle or hexagon gradually these circles and hexagons became symbols of the heavenly buddha many developed into, rosettes and eight pointed stars—motifs that were retained in the th and th centuries by the islāmic seljuqs who. Carried them to persia and asia minor as gupta influence increased sculpture gained in importance a new style had evolved by the. Th to th centuries, but it did not penetrate into western turkistan where the conquerors religiously opposed figural art in, the th century many buddhists left kashgaria? And islām gained ground figural sculpture was forced underground and was primarily produced by secret shamanistic cults of an indigenous central asian origin although figural art was never to flourish in western turkistan as gloriously as it had prior to the invasion there was a revival under the mongols. In the form of book. Illuminations eastern turkistan uighurs the figural arts found new patrons in eastern turkistan among the turkic uighurs who while living in t'ang dynasty china had been influenced by manichaean figurative art the overthrow in china in ad of buddhism by official confucianism forced the buddhist uighurs, to, migrate to. Eastern turkistan, gradually they gained control over the tien shan region turfan and the northeastern section of the tarim basin the turkic uighurs especially favoured portraiture in the th and th centuries uighur artists already had acquired great proficiency in rendering likenesses in a style heavily influenced, by chinese portraiture of the t'ang o brother where thou period these portraits were painted on silk and were frequently inscribed with the sitter's name khitans the figural style is believed to have been transmitted to the mongols by the khitans when, the latter were living on the middle reaches of the yenisey the wealth of the khitan princes is reflected in the furnishings of burial mounds discovered at kopeni some miles kilometres to the south of krasnoyarsk dating from the th to th century these fine mounds were similar in type to those constructed by the nomads of the st millennium nude bc one of the richest graves contained four gold jugs set on a silver, dish and a number of gold silver and bronze ornaments state. Hermitage museum two of the jugs although undecorated carry. Orhon inscriptions on their bases two others are covered with delicate relief representations of birds and fish surrounded by flowers and vegetation executed in a? Style influenced by islāmic art a scytho altaic hunting motif of riders pursuing a tiger a deer and a! Panther appears! On a bronze ornamental object turkic tribes had been concentrating their numbers in central asia from about the th century ad in the th century, the kul tepe and bilge khan tribes established a state, of their own in, the orhon valley the inscriptions that they carved on the valley's rocks are of considerable historical importance in the th century the turkic oğuz people were so numerous that they constituted tribes the sāmānids ghaznavids ghūrids and seljuqs were of oğuz extraction sāmānids the sāmānids centred their kingdom in khorāsān. In the th century under the leadership of. Esmāʿīl they ruled over transoxania and famous eastern persia from their capital of bukhara esmāʿīl's. Türbe or mausoleum the oldest islāmic monument surviving in bukhara reproduces the form of the zoroastrian chanar taq or fire temple in sāmānid and seljuqid hands the türbe sculpture generally took the? Form of a small circular or octagonal building roofed with a turret shaped like the point of a pencil mounted on a solid or single vaulted substructure its single chamber had a domed ceiling and a mihrab or niche indicating the direction of mecca in the more elaborate. Türbes the single paintings door. Was, framed with bands of geometric decoration and the turret was sometimes ribbed ghaznavids and ghūrids alp tigin a. Slave of. Turkic origin at the sāmānid court escaped in ad to kābul where he rapidly gained control of the town he. Transferred his headquarters to ghazna in central afghanistan and established his dynasty there few ghaznavid works of art have. Survived but the admirably proportioned and decorated mortuary towers at ghazna are architectural. Achievements of great splendour still finer is the minaret of? Jām a ghūrid structure of the th century standing alone in a desolate region it, escaped discovery until it is conjectured that the minaret may mark the position of the lost ghūrid capital, of fīiūzkūh seljuqs the art of the seljuqs who founded kingdoms in persia eastern byzantium syria and eclipsed that of the sāmānids ghūrids and ghaznavids they. Were great architectural patrons and constructed numerous mosques madrasahs islāmic religious schools hospitals orphanages baths caravansaries bridges and türbes notable for their decorative masonry elaborately ornamented portals and use of kūfic script as an architectural decorative device the seljuqs also attained a high standard in their decorative arts especially metalwork wood carving and pottery the mongols who terminated the seljuq, period adopted certain seljuqid artistic conventions particularly the use of ornamented portals and glazed tile paneling mongols genghis khan died the renowned mongol conqueror sacked and destroyed bukhara in sparing only the th. Century kalyan tower which was used for throwing criminals to their death the th century turkic conqueror timur however endowed samarkand with new glory by building a series of religious monuments widely renowned for their splendour and decorative use of glazed tiles in the th century bābur prince of fergana coveted samarkand failing to capture it he chose kābul as his headquarters for his conquest of india. His tomb there he, died in is the only visible testimony to the years he spent in the city emirate of bukhara although fine quality pottery decorated with animal bird and figural designs was being, made in new nisa in the th century the artistic revival of the mongol period. That timur had launched in western turkistan. Had died out by the th century, when the emirate of bukhara incorporating much of sogdiana was established except for gold thread embroidery and carpet making in most of central asia the. Visual arts largely realism stagnated, in mongolia. The conversion of the? Buryats to lamaism in the th, century brought into their tradition of ornamentation such tibetan, motifs as the lotus dragon and lion russian–soviet period in the emirate of bukhara! Was incorporated as a russian state. This, political act had little cultural effect and european art! Remained unknown to, central asians. Traditional indigenous architecture of baked. Or unbaked brick, construction was revived in the th century carved, doors and, screens were again produced old styles of islāmic script were combined with esques to adorn metalwork zoomorphic junctures persisted in the animal designs, created by. Metalworkers and potters alike although the ornaments worn by nomadic women had become so stylized as to have lost all. Resemblance to the ancient, animal motifs from which they were. Descended openwork remained a. Feature of much of the jewelry notably of the necklaces formed of, small openwork. Plaques linked by rings or chains following the russian revolution a new phase of art began, in the soviet controlled, regions of central asia, although the soviet authorities took steps to maintain the existing carpet and textile industries they encouraged the inclusion of. Genre scenes and native animals and vegetation they also founded schools to train artists in the traditions of european art pictorial arts are naturalistic in style conforming with the principles of social realism. As defined by the soviet authorities the first buryat mongolian turkmen painter to achieve, distinction in this style was tsyrenzhap sampilov arctic regions in, the arctic zone of central asia the prehistoric age extends from the rd millennium supplies bc to the arrival of europeans around ad? Knowledge of the region's arts is still. Very limited for it is wholly dependent upon the sculptures produced by eskimos living on the shores and in the hinterland of siberia and the! Bering strait these sculptures are mostly in walrus tusk though wood and, reindeer horn, examples also exist the majority landscape are small in size and worked in the round to form. Terminal ornaments for utilitarian or ceremonial. Objects or statuettes the latter are not provided. With bases and thus must have been designed to be carried about many of the implements are decorated with incised patterns formed chiefly of lines and dots as in. All early arts the statuettes, and terminal ornaments are largely concerned with hunting or the magical practices of. Shamanism, the earliest and finest statuettes of which there is. Knowledge are assigned to the okvik culture which some |