Sogdian art
Sogdian art refers to art produced by the Sogdians, an Iranian people living mainly in ancient Sogdia, present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, who also had a large diaspora living in China. Its apex was between the 5th and 9th centuries, and it consists of a rich body of pre-Muslim Central Asian visual arts. New finds recovered in the past decades allowed scholars to achieve a better understanding of Sogdian art. Sogdians are best known for their painting, although they excelled also in other fields, such as metalworking and music. Their metalworking, which influenced the Chinese, is sometimes confused with Sasanian metalwork. However, characteristics of Sogdian metalwork, differentiating it from Sasanian metalwork, have been established; for example, with respect to Sasanian metalwork, the designs of Sogdian vessels are more dynamic, and their productions less massive. They differ in technique and shape, as well as iconography. The Sogdians loved to recount stories, and their art is much "narrative" in nature. They lived in houses on whose walls they hung wood carvings and painted refined murals. Because the purpose of the Sogdians was to convey narrative, they would include only the essentials, setting the scene with lines, blocks of color, and a few landscape elements, creating an "easy-to-read two-dimensionality that helps advance the progress of the depicted tale." Overview Sogdian art was produced chiefly in Sogdia. The best known examples of Sogdian art are found at Pendzhikent and Varakhsha, in ancient Sogdania. These towns were once principalities in Sogdania. Sogdian culture was a distinct culture with its own features, but it received influence from different streams, notably Sasanian culture, and post-Gupta India. In turn, Sogdian culture influenced neighboring cultures, like Chinese culture. For their dwelling places, the Sogdians preferred to produce paintings and wood carvings. Sogdian wall paintings are bright, vigorous, and of remarkable beauty, but they also tell about Sogdian life. They reproduce, for example, the costumes of the day, the gaming equipment, and the harness. They depict stories and epics drawing on Iranian, Near Eastern (Manichaean, Nestorian) and Indian themes. Sogdian religious art reflects the religious affiliations of the Sogdians, and this knowledge is derived mostly from paintings and ossuaries. Through these artifacts, it is possible to "experience the vibrancy of Sogdian life and imagination." Sogdian art ceased with the Islamic invasion. Painting There are recurring elements distinctive of Sogdian art that appear in Sogdian metalwork, clay and wood sculpture, as well as throughout mural painting. Sogdian artists, and patrons, were very attentive to social life, displaying it in their works. Thus, banqueting, hunting, and entertainment are recurrent in their representations. The Sogdians were storytellers: they were passionate about recounting stories, and the interiors of their abodes were decorated with narrative paintings. The Sogdians also came into contact with different foreign cultures, because of their commercial activities. They were aware of cultures different from their own culture and accepted them, as is shown in their works. They had a "unique vision of the divine and afterlife", and their religious art