This fragment of silk painting (Pl. I) was brought back by the German Expedition to Turfan in 1905 and is now preserved in State Museums, Berlin. The remaining portion shows a part of a lotus seat probably for a Buddha or Bodhisattva image and two figures of women. The so-called “rainbow shading” for a lotus pedestal is usually composed of two components, a combination of blue and vermilion and a combination of green and purple. But here, in this painting, these four colours are combined and each colour has four grades of tone. It is a vary rare and colourful treatment. The two figures of women are Chinese ladies. Both the hair style and the style of costume are entirely of the early T'ang period. If one carefully looks at the head of the ladies, one will find a retouch which suggests that the painter first tried to paint monks and then changed his mind and made them ladies. The association of the local treatment of colours of the lotus pedestal and the fully Chinese figures has a unique, exotic and eye-catching effect.
