In those early days, many artists simply transferred their traditional paintings and symbolism from bodies and bark onto board.

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This extends far beyond the contemporary art market, too, with Chinese buyers pulling ahead of the pack and also dominating at auctions of traditional Chinese ink paintings, ceramics, and antiques this year.

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In the sun room, for example, where Mr. Ye kept the traditional blue-gray-black wall paintings, the workers decided to save money by using plastic in the ceiling blinds instead of the wooden slats Mr. Ye had requested.

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There are inlaid camel-head benches and painted peacock-and-lion chairs from Rajasthan, a table made from a traditional Indian four-poster bed decorated with embroidered cloth of gold, Hindu devotional paintings, showcases housing exquisite jewellery and carved peasant objects.

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Somehow, Donatello transforms a traditional devotional form into a potent evocation of an individual, pointing the way to the vividly personal paintings and sculptures of demure women and powerful men in subsequent galleries.

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