Northern Dynasty Murals: A Unique Historical Album of Shanxi
Ancient Chinese mural art preserves historical and cultural information such as religion, etiquette, customs, architecture, clothing, music, paintings, etc., as well as some little-known pictures of the spiritual world and life.
The Northern Dynasty was a turbulent era in the history of the mainland, and the mural tombs of the Northwest Dynasty depicted the spectacular scene of the collision of national cultures, reproduced the historical trajectory of ethnic exchanges and integration, and had high historical value, cultural relics and research value from many angles such as politics, society, thought, culture, art and folklore.
First, the idea of life and death
Under the isolated thick soil, the tomb is by no means a place for painters to show off their skills, and the murals are not simple artistic creations, but the deceased uses his unique artistic language and logical thinking to express his concern and expectation for the direction of life, and express his understanding and attitude towards life and death, so that the funeral concept that is difficult to display with the tomb shape system and burial products becomes visualized. By the Northern Qi period, the single-room brick tomb with arc wall and dome had become the highest standard tomb shape system, and feasting, ceremonial guards, and travel had gradually become the mainstream.
Although the owners of the tomb murals of the Northwest Dynasty of Shanxi come from different ethnic groups, most of the painting themes are honor charts, travel maps, hunting maps, etc., which are obviously not the same or similar to life hobbies, nor are they not only the reproduction and praise of their respective lifetimes of military achievements and great authority, but a kind of coincident arrangement and yearning for them after death.
The owner of the tomb of Lou Rui in Taiyuan was a foreign relative of Northern Qi, a humble and nobleman, who made a prominent military achievement in the southern expedition to the north, and was named the King of Dong'an, and was a powerful figure in the Northern Qi aristocratic group. He took pains to run his own resting place, and he would make the murals in his tomb extraordinary. Through the two major plates of the eunuch career and the auspicious celestial phenomenon, the painter designed four groups of pictures such as kurama ranger, military music honor guard, doorman honor guard, and Lu Jue eminent figure, plus twelve portraits at the top of the tomb, which together formed a large picture scroll of heaven on earth, and vividly expressed his arrangements and expectations after his death.
▲Lou Rui tomb mural (partial)
Xu Xianxiu was a young hero, brave in battle, repeatedly made military achievements, was named the King of Wu'an, and then entered the upper echelons of the Eastern Wei regime step by step, so his mausoleum and Lou Rui's tomb are the same, depicting an honor guard led by a divine beast, 96 young and middle-aged soldiers, uniform in style and color, some holding the three flags, some with shoulder trumpets, some with swords and bows, and some with reins and horses, scattered into groups, with different looks.
▲Xu Xianxiu tomb mural (partial)
Second, a variety of life pictures
▲ Lou Rui tomb mural Door official diagram
Lou Rui's tomb murals are rich in content, especially in the "DrumMing Diagram", the first four people stand in pairs opposite each other, holding up the trombone and blowing; the four horses stand quietly behind them, the front and right side of the white black spot five flowers and three hooves stand, the left front hoof is raised, as a planing shape, the horse's head is slightly bent downwards, the ears are tilted forward, and the gaze is downcast, as if listening to the image of the long sound of the horn and the horseshoe planing the earth.
▲Lou Rui tomb mural blowing figure part
The tomb murals of Jiuyuangang in Xinzhou are full of the rich life atmosphere of the Northern Qi nobles. Two large murals of 30 meters long and 1.5 meters high are painted with hunting horses and walking hunters, armed with bows and arrows, spears and flags, driving dogs and eagles, galloping horses, tigers, bears, deer, sheep, snakes, rabbits and other animals that roam the mountains, some fighting with hunters, some desperately escaping. In particular, a large number of soldiers are depicted in the picture, they are tall, wearing tiger and leopard leather suits, sabers and bows, different nationalities, mighty and brave, fierce and realistic, which is the epitome of the national exchanges and gathering of the Northern Dynasty and the bravery and good fighting of the troops.
▲ Xinzhou Jiuyuangang tomb mural a samurai marching
In particular, on the north wall of the tomb is painted a large wooden structure with the roof of the temple...
This is the first time to see the style of Northern Dynasty architecture in paintings, especially the double-pillared bucket is the first time to be found in tombs of the same period, and the history of the use of the oblique tree in ancient buildings on the mainland is hundreds of years earlier.
▲Xinzhou Jiuyuangang tomb mural gate tower map
Third, the artistic expression of simple standard beauty
Among the many art murals in China, the Northern Dynasty murals are the product of 200 years of fusion between foreign art and local art, which has been completely Sinicized and formed a unique and novel art style. Among them, the murals of Lou Rui's tomb and Xu Xianxiu's tomb are represented, the composition is grand and grand, the character image is vivid, and the grasp of the artistic state is just right, both rigorous and accurate modeling, and there is a real and touching artistic image with outstanding personality; in the technique, the line is both accurate and in place, but also vivid and elegant, with the unique and distinctive style of the Northern Qi court painter Yang Zihua's "simple standard beauty", which is also one of the few masterpieces in the history of Chinese art.
Source: Wenbo Shanxi Shanxi Cloud Media
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