Silk Road transmission of art

Following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories in the 8th century BCE, gold was introduced from Central Asia, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat).

Designs with rosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays, suggestive of Hellenistic influences, can be found on some early Han dynasty bronze mirrors.

It has been traced back to the Sui dynasty in China, and is still to be found in sacred sites in many parts of Western Europe, and especially in churches in Dartmoor, Devon.

Finally, the Greek artistic motif of the floral scroll was transmitted from the Hellenistic world to the area of the Tarim Basin around the 2nd century CE, as seen in Serindian art and wooden architectural remains.

These motifs have evolved towards more symbolic representations, but essentially remain to this day in the roof tile decorations of many Japanese traditional-style buildings.

1st century CE Map of Silk Road
Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian -style animal art of the steppes. 4th-3rd century BCE. British Museum .
Western-influenced Zhou vase with glass inlays, 4th-3rd century BCE, British Museum .
Zhou / Han bronze mirror with glass inlays, perhaps incorporated Greco-Roman artistic patterns (rosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays). Victoria and Albert Museum .
Iconographic evolution of the Buddha. Left: A buddha in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara , 3rd century CE. Right: A Buddha in Kamakura , Japan (1252).
A Buddha in Seokguram , South Korea. It was influenced by Gandhara art.
Iconographical evolution from the Greek god Herakles to the Japanese god Shukongōshin . From left to right: 1) Herakles (Louvre Museum). 2) Herakles on coin of Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I . 3) Vajrapani , the protector of the Buddha, depicted as Herakles in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara . 4) Shukongōshin, manifestation of Vajrapani , as protector deity of Buddhist temples in Japan .
Iconographical evolution of the Wind God. Left: Greek Wind God from Hadda , 2nd century. Middle: Wind God from (Kızıl), Tarim Basin , 7th century. Right: Japanese Wind God Fūjin , 17th century.
Transmission of the flower scroll pattern. Top: Gandhara frieze, 2nd century. Middle left: Chinese vase, 6th century. Middle right: Japanese temple tile, 7th century, Nara . Bottom: Tile detail from a Japanese contemporary house, Tokyo , 2005.