陕西历史博物馆: Tang Murals 壁画

choi

Mary Tompkins Lewis, On the Road to Paradise; Tomb relics from China’s arguably most glorious epoch. Wall Street Journal, Feb 19, 2014.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324123004579055023724032290

Note:
(a) The English surname Tompkins means son of Tompkin. The latter is a pet form of Thomas.
(b) “The ancient imperial city of Chang'an (modern day Xi'an) reached its plenitude in the early eighth century, when it was the largest metropolis in the world and capital of the illustrious Tang dynasty (618-906). * * * Surprisingly, relatively few examples of Chang'an's visual arts were known for centuries. Since 1950, however, scores of royal tombs have been excavated, and the treasures unearthed have dramatically enriched our knowledge of the area's history, culture, politics and art. The eloquent wall paintings extracted from Tang-era tombs offer brilliant testimony”

plenitude (n; ultimately from Latin plenitudo, from plenus
"1:  the quality or state of being full :  COMPLETENESS
2:  a great sufficiency :  ABUNDANCE"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plenitude

(b) “The Shaanxi History Museum, an elegant Tang-style complex, opened in Xi'an in 1991 and houses, in its central building, thousands of recovered artifacts”

陕西历史博物馆
www.sxhm.com/‎

(c) "One of the earliest fresco cycles on view, dated to c.631 and extracted from a tomb [was] discovered in 1973 of the valiant warrior Li Shou (577-630) * * * A martial scene befitting the deceased fighter and his embattled era, it establishes the subject of the hunt in the taut, 'iron wire' style of the earliest Tang painters, a pictorial language that would become more fluid over time. A western wall from the same complex yielded fragments of tributes to the fallen leader, including an imposing cavalcade of mounted honor guards and marching figures who lead a stately, riderless white horse. It is likely one of the dynasty's first paintings of the Transoxanian horses imported from Silk Road traders in central Asia, the magnificent breed that would captivate the imagination of Tang painters and sculptors."
(i) LI Shou  李壽
(ii) “1973年陕西省三原县 李寿墓墓道东壁揭取 狩猎图(四幅) Hunting Scene(4 parts)”
(iii) 李神通
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E7%A5%9E%E9%80%9A
(名寿，以字行; 為唐高祖李淵之從父弟)

One has to search the web to understand 從父弟.
(iv) cavalcade (n; French): "a procession of riders or carriages"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cavalcade
(v)
(A) Transoxiana
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transoxiana
(The area had been known to the Greeks as Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus); The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian, who visited the neighbouring countries of Bactria and Parthia along with Transoxiana in 126 BC, made the first known Chinese report on this region)
(B) Wikipedia has a page for “Amu Darya” (which is the Persian for Amu River and whose Ancient Greek and Latin were Oxos and Oxus, respectively; Name origin: Named for city of Āmul (now Turkmenabat[, a city in Turkmenistan]); Mouth   Aral Sea). Yet that page does not show the big picture of where the river is in Central Asia. Thus, see a map in
Aral Sea
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea

(d) “Within only decades [after Li Shou’s tomb was built]—as seen in the subsequent series of graceful, life-size female attendants who once glided in single-file down the passageways of the tomb of Princess Fang Ling 房陵公主 [619-673; 唐高祖李淵第六女]—the Tang ideal of female beauty would be perfected. Statuesque, self-possessed and disarmingly sensual, these elegantly dressed and coiffed figures epitomize the sophistication and prestige enjoyed by court women in an age of increasing peace and prosperity. They are painted in the equally elegant ‘silk-thread’ style, marked by flatly applied color, sinuous, tapering lines and deft, naturalistic draftsmanship achieved with an extraordinary economy of means.”
(i) Category:唐高祖皇女
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:唐高祖皇女
(ii) Why 房陵?  What was her real name?  (李 what?)  It is unclear.
(iii) I can not find “silk-thread” style--or “iron-wire” style for that matter--in the Web.

(e) “One of the museum's best preserved fresco series, excavated in 1971-72, was painted in the early eighth century in the mausoleum of Crown Prince Li Xian 李贤 (d. 684), constructed to rectify the ruthless political machinations of Empress Wu Zetian [c 625-705; reign 690-705], the only female ever to rule China in her own right. The second son of the empress by Emperor Gaozong 唐高宗 [628-683; reign 649-683], Li Xian fell out of favor, was exiled, and then forced, apparently by his mother's agents, to commit suicide. After the empress's death in 705, the prince's body was ordered exhumed from a commoner's grave by his brother, Emperor Zhongzong 唐中宗 [656-710; two reigns Jan 3, 684-Feb 26, 684; 705-710], and reinstated in a sumptuous setting [at Qianling Mausoleum 乾陵, in 陕西省咸阳市乾县 梁山]. The new mausoleum measured more than six square acres and included watchtowers, a beautiful garden and a stately processional path that led to a burial mound. The walls and ceilings of the tomb's interior corridors were covered with illusionistic murals that, like the massive complex itself, were intended to rehabilitate the prince's royal status.”
(i) 李贤 (唐朝)
zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E6%9D%8E%E8%B3%A2_(%E5%94%90%E6%9C%9D)
(654-684; 中国唐高宗李治第六子，也是武则天第二子。在其兄李弘死后，一度被封为太子，之后被废为庶人; In 711 唐睿宗追贈皇太子地位，諡章懷太子，與其妃房氏 [no given name] 合葬)

唐高宗李治 was 唐太宗 李世民第九子、嫡三子.
(ii) 唐睿宗
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/唐睿宗
(662-716; two reigns Feb 27, 684 (following 中宗)-690 (禪讓於武则天), 710-712 (禪讓於子李隆基 ( 唐玄宗); 母为武则天，李弘、李贤、唐中宗李顯等都是其兄长)
(iii) photo caption in this museum review: 'The Ambassadors,' a wall fresco from the tomb of Crown Prince Li Xian  章懷太子墓 西壁 客使圖

(f) Also in Li Xian's Tomb: "The opposing wall 墓道東壁 features the earliest known Chinese depiction of polo 打马球图, an aristocratic pastime long valued as training for cavalrymen and probably imported from Persia. * * * foreign dignitaries, whose exaggerated physiognomies and elaborate costumes have led scholars to tentatively suggest they include a Roman vassal (with a bald pate and distinctive aquiline nose), a Korean emissary in a pointed feathered hat, and behind, a Mongolian envoy dressed in the winter garb of the north."
(i) pate (n): "the crown of the head"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pate
(ii) aquiline
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aquiline
(iv) Aquiline nose
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquiline_nose
(also known as Roman nose)

(g) For the corresponding murals, go to images.google.com.