MONGOLIAN
Miniature Paintings

Waiting for Dreams
83 x 89 mm
 

Drumming Shaman
100 x 133 mm
 

Meditation and Rest
100 x 114 mm
 

Spreading Spirit
83 x 126 mm
 

Behind the Camel
100 x 114 mm
 

Chasing Sheep
82 x 95 mm
 

The artist of the above six miniature paintings is unknown only because the collector is unable to read Mongolian script.  Each is signed in pen on the right margin of the white paper mount, and the artist's chop is also affixed. Each painting is painted to a canvas-paper and affixed to the mount.  The subjects relate to the traditional life of the nomadic Mongolian pastoralists; several scenes are risque vignettes, several are descriptive of the ancient but continuing shamanic ritual events that dot their cultural landscape.  Visible in the paintings are penciled sketches that guide the final brush strokes. 

The painting below is by a different artist, and describes the rider with his lasso stick riding his traditional Mongolian horse.  He appears large on the horse, but it is, in reality, the horse that is unusually small.  Visible on the horse is the muscle, below the tail and on each side, that facilitates the unique fifth gait of the Mongolian steed.  It was this physical characteristic that allows the intense speed of  horse and rider that Ghengis Khan exploited in conquering the Asian continent in the 13th century.

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