Manichaean art

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The seal of Mani, the oldest known Manichaean art

Manichaeism has a rich tradition of visual art, starting with Mani himself writing the Book of Pictures.[1]

One of Mani's primary beliefs was that the

dualism of light and darkness, maps of a religious universe, the process of human salvation, as well as various Manichaean prophets and deities, and were considered principal pieces of the Manichaean canon.[3]

On the subject of Mani's original paintings,

Turfan, Western Regions, scholars began turning to the newly uncovered remains of Manichaean book art in order to assess through the fragments what could resemble the original style of the Arzhang.[6]

Illuminated manuscripts

  • MIK III 4959 both sides
    MIK III 4959 both sides
  • MIK III 4974 front side, back side is just text
    MIK III 4974 front side, back side is just text
  • MIK III 4979 front side
    MIK III 4979 front side
  • MIK III 4979 back side
    MIK III 4979 back side
  • MIK III 6368 front side
    MIK III 6368 front side
  • MIK III 6368 back side
    MIK III 6368 back side
  • Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 8259" folio 1 recto
    Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 8259" folio 1 recto
  • Illustration from the Sogdian-language Manichaean letter found separately from the other illustrations
    Illustration from the Sogdian-language Manichaean letter found separately from the other illustrations

Manichaean

illuminated manuscripts are best known from a series of four manuscripts found in Gaochang Xinjiang

They were collected in Germany

German Turpan expedition team in the early 20th century. They are illuminated manuscripts with illustrations on both sides[7]

In addition the

Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves[8][9]

Silk paintings

Eight Silk Painting Atlas

Eight silk hanging scrolls with Manichaean didactic images from southern China from between the 12th and the 15th centuries, which can be divided into four categories:

Two single portraits (depicting Mani and Jesus)
One scroll depicting
Salvation Theory
(Soteriology)
Four scrolls depicting Prophetology (Prophetology)
One scroll depicting Cosmology (Cosmology)

Murals, reliefs, and banners

Manichaeism has a rich legacy of temple art including Manichaean stone reliefs of Shangwan village, Manichaean temple banner MIK III 6286, Manichaean wall painting MIK III 6918, and Veneration of the Tree of Life

Manichaean temple banner MIK III 6286 and Manichaean wall painting MIK III 6918 were both found by the German Turfan expeditions in Gaochang Xinjiang[10][11]

Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, also in Xinjiang[12]

The Manichaean stone reliefs of Shangwan village were discovered in Fujian in 2009[13] and the origins of the Buddha of Light at Cao'an were only rediscovered in the 1920s[14]

Influence

Following the discovery of Manichaean paintings in

Sassanid era (during which Mani lived), with such identifiable elements as the quality of the lines, the simplicity of the faces, and the exuberant amount of detail in the folds of the garments. These similarities link the Turfan fragments to what is known of art in the Greater Iran area before the arrival of Islam.[17]

Detail of the Manichaean Diagram of the Universe, c. 13th-14th century

The Buddhist practice known as

Mahayana Buddhists, synthesizing the tradition of didcatic illustration that began with the Arzhang with the formal attributes of the hanging scrolls used in e-toki, while also syncretizing Buddhist and Manichaean beliefs.[18]

Mani presenting an illustration to King Bahram I in a painting by Ali-Shir Nava'i, c. 16th century

An

Sassanid Persia under Shapur I. Prompted by threats, Mani fled to Turkestan, where he gained followers and painted a few temples (incidentally, a few paintings in Bamyan are attributed to Mani). Mani then spent a year in the solitude of a cave after telling his followers that he was going to heaven. After the year, Mani returned with the Arzhang, which he said he had brought down from heaven. After the death of Shapur, he and a large procession of followers returned to Persia. According to this account, the new king Bahram I received and favored Mani, but he was later flayed alive for his heresies.[19] In a 16th-century painting by Ali-Shir Nava'i from modern-day Uzbekistan
, Mani is shown at the throne Bahram as the king inspects one of the prophet's illustrations.

In Islamic tradition (excluding

Persian miniature painting
is correct) that the character of Arzhang first would've been illustrated in the style of the Arzhang.

See also

Literature

  • Lieu, Samuel N. C. (1992), Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China, Volume 63 of Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament (2 ed.), Mohr Siebeck,
    ISBN 3161458206
  • Gulácsi, Zsuzsanna (2005). Mediaeval Manichaean Book Art: A Codicological Study of Iranian and Turkic Illuminated Book Fragments from 8th-11th Century East Central Asia. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies. Vol. 57. Leiden: Brill.
    ISBN 978-90-474-0596-2
    .
  • Gulácsi, Zsuzsanna (2016). Mani's Pictures: The Didactic Images of the Manichaeans from Sasanian Mesopotamia to Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies. Vol. 90. Leiden: Brill.
    ISBN 978-90-04-30894-7
    .

References

  1. ^ a b Arnold, Thomas (1924). Survivals of Sasanian and Manichaean Art in Persian painting. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 23–24.
  2. ISBN 9004064788
    .
  3. ^
    doi:10.11588/ts.2011.1.6173. Retrieved December 9, 2019. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help
    )
  4. ^
    ISBN 9789004308947
    .
  5. Iranian Academy of Arts
    , 2023
  6. ISBN 9004064788
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-87099-300-8
    .
  8. ISBN 9789004139947
    .
  9. ^ "Mani Sutra" (PDF). National Library of China (in Simplified Chinese). 2011. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  10. ^ Gulacsi, Zsuzsanna. ""A Song Dynasty Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus [幅宋代摩尼教<夷数佛帧> = Yifu Songdai Monijiao Yishufozheng]." Journal for the Study of Art History [艺术史研究 =Yishushi Yanjiu] 2008:139-189 [in Chinese]".
  11. ISBN 9789004308947
    .
  12. ^ Ma Jian (2006-11-01). "Remains of Manichaeism in Turpan". dsr.nii.ac.jp (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  13. ^ 鍾明, ed. (2010-04-26). "《倚天屠龍記》明教遺跡藏閩霞浦小山村 (組圖)". culture.china.com.cn. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  14. ^ Lieu 1992, p. 304
  15. ISBN 0847816605
    .
  16. ISBN 900413994X
    .
  17. ISBN 900413994X
    .
  18. ^ Dr. Char Yar. "Monijiao (Manichaeism) in China". academia.edu. Lecture presented at the Worldwide Conference for Historical Research, 2012.
  19. Pagan Christs (2nd ed. 1911), § 14. The Problem of Manichæus, online at http://www.sacred-texts.com
  20. Encyclopaedia Iranica
    , 1999.
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