Lilla Russell-Smith, Ph.D. (2001) in Art History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London is an independent scholar. She has lectured and published on Dunhuang art since 1994. She co-founded the Circle of Inner Asian Art at SOAS, University of London in 1995, has been editing the Circle’s publications, and is currently its Honorary Secretary. At the British Museum she coordinated the digitisation of the Stein Collection and was co-author of Catalogue of the Collection of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (London and Budapest, 2002).

This volume is about the long-neglected, but decisive influence of Uygur patrons on Dunhuang art in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Through an insightful introduction to the hitherto little-known early history and art of the Uygurs, the author explains the social and political forces that shaped the taste of Uygur patrons. The cultural and political effects of Sino-Uygur political marriages are examined in the larger context of the role of high-ranking women in medieval art patronage.

Careful study of the iconography, technique and style sheds new light on important paintings in the collection of the British Museum in London, and the Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, in Paris, and through comparative analysis the importance of regional art centres in medieval China and Central Asia is explored. Richly illustrated with line drawings, as well as colour and black-and-white plates.