Lanzhou, 15 Dec (Xinhua) -- On the 15th, this reporter learned from the Tiantishan Grottoes Conservation Research Institute in Wuwei City, Gansu Province, that the Dunhuang Research Institute found a complete Beiliang Feitian mural in the process of restoring the painted murals of the Tiantishan Grottoes.
Uncover the restored Northern Cool Arc-shaped heavy mural.
It is understood that Tianti Mountain is a branch of the Eastern Line of Qilian Mountain. The Tiantishan Grottoes, excavated on the rock wall, were built in Beiliang during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with a history of about 1600 years, and are an outstanding representative of China's early grotto art. The flying murals of the Northern Liang period predate the well-known Dunhuang murals in time. Affected by factors such as long history and production methods, it is rare to preserve the complete Beiliang Feitian murals.
According to relevant experts, unlike the beautiful flying image of people's impression of light fluttering and flying in the air, the Beiliang Flying Sky Mural is very skilled in online drawing, color setting, smudge, shape, and look, mood, etc., giving people a "simple and clumsy" feeling, which is not a problem of drawing skills, but a unique feature of early Buddhist mural art.
Cai Jianhong, director of the Cultural Relics Research Office of the Tiantishan Grottoes Conservation Research Institute in Wuwei City, introduced that this mural is located on the edge of the first-level tower pillar on the back of the central column of Cave 4, and the entire mural area is about 0.6 square meters. From the bottom up, three figures appear in the mural: the lowest one is mutilated, with only the eyes to the top of the head; the middle one is a kneeling bodhisattva image; and the upper floor is a complete horizontal flying image.
Cai Jianhong said that the hairstyle, facial features, face shape, chest ornaments, glitter, shawl, long skirt and other cloaks worn in this flying body are basically the same as the standing bottle bodhisattva unveiled in 1960, the difference is that the bodhisattva is more elegant and calm and slightly slender and weak, while this flying body gives people a rough feeling. The flying head is inward, the feet are outward, and although the waist is slightly curved downward, it is exactly like a bodhisattva lying horizontally in the upper part of the niche.
Uncover the flying part of the restored Northern Cool Arc-shaped heavy mural.
"The entire mural is painted in a style that uses the 'bump painting method'. Its brow bone and upper eyelid are stained with white dots, thus forming a clear three-dimensional effect. From the perspective of the painting technique of the mural, whether it is the color and smudge of the skin of the face of the character, or the iron line drawing that shows the contour of the body and the folds of clothing, it has reached a very high level. Cai Jianhong said.
Liu Zhi, director of the Tiantishan Grottoes Conservation Research Institute in Wuwei City, said that the newly discovered early flying murals of Beiliang formed its unique characteristics and style on the basis of fully absorbing the achievements of Buddhist art in ancient South Asia and Central Asia, providing new physical materials for the study of early Buddhist art in China, and an important discovery in the archaeological research of grottoes in China.
It is reported that the "Wuwei Tiantishan Grottoes Relocation Mural Painting Restoration" project that lasted 8 years has now been fully completed, and the restoration of cultural relics includes more than 300 square meters of murals and more than 70 statues, and the restoration project is carried out by the Dunhuang Research Institute.
Source: Xinhua Net