Dunhuang Frescoes

Dunhuang mural painting refers to the mural paintings that exist in the Dunhuang caves. Dunhuang mural paintings, including Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, West Thousand Buddha Cave, Anxi Yulin Grottoes *** There are 552 grottoes, with more than 50,000 square meters of mural paintings of successive dynasties, is China is also the world's largest group of grottoes, mural paintings, the contents of which are very rich. Dunhuang mural painting is the main component of Dunhuang art, huge scale, exquisite skills. Dunhuang mural paintings are rich and colorful, it is the same as other religious art, is the depiction of the image of God, God's activities, God and God's relationship, God and human relations in order to send people's good wishes, soothe people's hearts art. Therefore, the style of frescoes has different characteristics from secular paintings. However, any art originates from real life, any art has its national tradition; therefore, their forms are mostly out of **** the same artistic language and techniques of expression, with **** the same national style. The famous Dunhuang murals have nine-colored deer to save people, Shakyamuni biography, Sa Hamanna gave up his body to feed the tiger and other famous mural stories.

First, the Buddha painting

As religious art, it is the main part of the mural paintings, which includes a variety of Buddha statues ------ the Third Buddha, the Seven Buddhas, Shakyamuni, Doppo Buddha, Xianjia Thousand Buddhas, etc.; a variety of Bodhisattvas ------ Manjushri, Pushyun, Guanyin, Seijin, etc.; Heavenly Dragons and Dragons ------ Heavenly Kings, Dragon Kings, Night Forks, Flying Skies, Asuras, Garuda (Golden-winged Bird King ), Jinnara (Lotus), Python God and so on. Most of these Buddha statues are painted in the figure of saying. Only the Mogao Caves murals in the sayings of the map has 933, a variety of demeanor of the Buddha 12208 body.

Second, the sutra change painting

The use of painting, literature and other forms of art, easy to understand performance of esoteric Buddhist classics called "sutra change". Using painting techniques to express the content of the classics is called "change of appearance", that is, the sutra change painting; with the text, singing and singing techniques called "change of text".

Third, the national tradition of mythological themes

In the late Northern Wei caves, the emergence of mythological themes with Taoist thinking. Western Wei 249 caves at the top, in addition to the center of the painting lotus wells, the east and west sides of the painting Asura and Mani beads, the north and south sides of the painting of the King of the East, the Queen Mother of the West driving a dragon car, phoenix car travel. Car heavy cover hanging high, the car behind the flags fluttering, in front of the section holding a streamer to open the way, followed by a human head of the dragon body of the enlightenment of the beasts. Vermilion Bird, Xuanwu, Green Dragon and White Tiger were distributed on each wall. Flying Lian wings and wind movement, Lei Gong swinging arm to turn even drums, Thunderbolt to iron drill smashing stone flash, rain master spray and rain.

Fourth, the provider portraits

Provider, provider, is the belief that Buddhism funded the construction of grottoes. In order to show their devotion to Buddhism, to stay in the future, in the opening of the grotto image, in the grotto painted on their own and the family, relatives and slaves, etc. Portraits, these portraits, known as the feeder image.

Fifth, decorative pattern painting

Colorful decorative pattern painting is mainly used for grotto architectural decoration, but also table surroundings, crowns and artifacts such as decoration. Decorative patterns vary with the times, a thousand variations, with superb painting skills and rich imagination. Pattern painting mainly algae well patterns, patterns between the rafters, side decorative patterns and so on.

Six, story painting

In order to attract a wide range of people, vigorously publicize the Buddha's scriptures and teachings, it is necessary to abstract, esoteric history of the Buddhist classics with the popular concise, image of the form of inculcation to the masses, to call them, so that they believe in the pilgrimage. So, in the cave painted a large number of story paintings, so that the masses in the process of watching, by subtle education. Story paintings are rich in content, moving plot, rich flavor of life, with attractive charm. Can be divided into five main categories.

1, the Buddha story: mainly promote the life of Sakyamuni. Many of them are ancient Indian myths and folklore, the Buddhists after a number of centuries of processing modification, attached to Sakyamuni. Generally painted "riding on the elephant human fetus", "half past the city at night" more scenes. Cave 290 (Northern Zhou) of the Buddha's story as a horizontal scroll six side-by-side, painted in a sequential structure, *** 87 images, depicting Sakyamuni from the birth of the family between all the episodes. Such a long and huge serial painting, in our country Buddhist story painting is rare.

2, the story of life painting: refers to the depiction of Shakyamuni's life of various good deeds, publicizing the "karma" "austerity good" vivid story. It is also a widely popular subject in the early murals at Dunhuang, such as "Sa Whang Na gave up his body to feed the tiger", "King Zebi cut his flesh to save the pigeons", "Nine-Colored Deer gave up his life to save others", "Sukhothi cut his flesh to serve his relatives" and so on. Although they are branded with religion, but still maintains the myth, fairy tale, folk tales of the original color.

3, karma story painting: this is the Buddha's disciples, good men and women and Sakyamuni's story of the enlightenment of beings. The difference between the story and the story of this life is: this life is only about the story of Sakyamuni's life; and karma is about Buddhist disciples, good men and women in the past life or in this life. The main stories in the mural are "five hundred robbers to become Buddha", "Shamans to keep the precepts of suicide", "good friend Prince into the sea to get the treasure" and so on. Story content bizarre, plot twists and turns, quite dramatic.

4, Buddhist history story painting:

It refers to the story painted according to historical records, including Buddhist holy sites, induction stories, monks, Rui-like figure, precepts paintings. Containing historical figures, historical events, is the image of the history of Buddhism. These paintings are mostly painted in the cave niche four Phi, the top of the tunnel and the corner of the secondary places. But some are also painted on the front wall, such as Cave 323 of the "Zhang Qian mission to the West", "Fotu Cheng" and Cave 72 of the "Liu Saha" and so on.

5, metaphorical story painting: this is Shakyamuni in-depth, easy to understand to the Buddhist disciples, good men and women to explain the Buddhist teachings listed in the story. These stories are mostly fables and fairy tales from ancient India and Southeast Asia, which were collected and recorded by Buddhists in Buddhist scriptures and preserved to this day. Dunhuang murals in the metaphorical story of "Elephant Protection and the Golden Elephant", "Golden Lion" and so on.

Seven, landscape painting

Dunhuang mural paintings of landscape paintings throughout the grotto, rich in content, a variety of forms. Most of them are integrated with the sutra painting, story painting, and play a role in accompanying. Some are in accordance with the Buddhist canon of landscape, with reference to the reality of the scene plus superb imagination, depicting the "Elysium" green hills and water, birds and flowers of the beautiful natural scenery; some are the main body of the landscape as an independent painting, such as the 61st cave, "Wutai Mountain Figure" Mural content in addition to the above seven categories, there are architectural paintings, artifact paintings, bird paintings, animal paintings and so on. The artistic value of Dunhuang murals is invaluable, as they systematically reflect the art styles of various periods and their evolution, as well as the history of Chinese and Western art exchanges, in terms of structural layout, character modeling, line drawing, and coloring. The above seven types of murals, in addition to decorative motifs, generally have the plot of the murals, especially the painting and story painting, reflecting a large number of real social life, such as: the ruling class of the travel, banquets, interrogation, hunting, shaving, rituals, etc.; the working people's farming, hunting, fishing, pottery, smelting, slaughter, cooking, camping, begging, etc.; there are also marriages, schooling, martial arts training, singing, dancing and drama, business travelers and so on various social and cultural aspects of the ethnic minorities, foreign envoys, and so on, Minorities, foreign envoys and other social activities. Therefore, Dunhuang Grottoes, not only art, but also history.

Modeling features

Dunhuang murals have a kind of spirit image (Buddha, Bodhisattva, etc.) and the image of the ordinary people (for the people and the story of the characters in the painting points. These two types of images are derived from real life, but each has a different nature. From the modeling. The image of ordinary people rich in life, the characteristics of the times also showed more distinctive; while the image of the gods is less change, imagination and exaggeration more components. From the clothes and costumes, said the common people more for the Chinese Han, the gods are more to maintain exotic clothes and crowns; halo method is not the same, the painting of the common people more halo method of the Central Plains, the gods are more for the West concave and convex method. All of these again with the times do not ask and constantly changing.

One of the issues closely related to modeling is deformation. Dunhuang murals inherited the deformation of traditional painting, skillfully shaped a variety of characters, animals and plants. Different times, different aesthetic point of view, the degree and method of deformation is not the same. Early deformation to a greater extent, more romanticism, the image of the characteristics of the distinctive disaster; Sui and Tang Dynasty, less deformation, stronger sense of three-dimensionality, realism is increasingly strong. There are two general methods of deformation: one is an exaggerated deformation of a character in the original shape of the regular changes, that is, lengthened into a disaster. Such as the late Northern Wei or Western Wei period of the bodhisattva, greatly increased clothing, fingers and neck length, the end of the bone exposed, with the distance between the day pastoral foraging, the corner of the mouth upturned, shaped like a flower petal; after the deformation of the Che became the flow of the dashing "show bone rule like". Full just Lux is more in the horizontal exaggeration, thicken the limbs, shorten the neck, head round belly, prismatic eyebrow bulging eyes, emphasizing the physical fitness and super people power. These two figures are the result of exaggeration.

Painting style

Dunhuang mural paintings of various caves of the era are different, so the style is not very consistent. Earlier sixteen countries and Northern Wei caves mural feelings strongly exposed, dynamic and obviously exaggerated character modeling, with strong fine lines outlined and focus on the expression of halo, as well as with ochre red and flower patterns decorated with the form of the backing, are clearly with the extra-territorial or Xinjiang style of painting. The Western Wei Dynasty absorbed traditional forms and incorporated more life situations and images into the creation of Buddhist frescoes. Typically, the murals of this period were painted in white chalk, with vigorous line drawings and bright colors. Overall, it appears that traditional painting styles were further developed in Dunhuang Buddhist art. The Northern Zhou is usually a large Bunsen and the Buddha's story of serial paintings, all white walls as a base, with smooth line drawing outlines, modeling simple and vivid, light and elegant colors, although some of the skin slightly three-dimensional halo, there is still the legacy of Western painting, but on the whole, from the image of the art style has been the traditional Han Chinese paintings face.

Dunhuang mural paintings of various caves of the era are different, so the style is not very consistent.

Earlier the 16th State and Northern Wei caves mural feelings strongly exposed, dynamic and obviously exaggerated character modeling, with strong fine lines outlined and focus on the expression of halo, as well as ochre red with scattered flower pattern decorative backing form, are clearly with the extra-territorial or Xinjiang style of painting.

The Western Wei dynasty absorbed traditional forms and incorporated more life situations and images into the creation of Buddhist murals. Typically, the murals of this period were painted in white chalk, with vigorous line drawings and bright fugitive colors. Overall, it seems that the traditional style of painting has been further developed in Dunhuang Buddhist art.

The Northern Zhou is usually a large Bunsen and Dharma story serial paintings, all with white walls as the base, with smooth line drawings, modeling simple and vivid, light and elegant colors, although some skin slightly three-dimensional halo, there is still the legacy of Western painting, but on the whole, from the image of the art style has been the traditional Han Chinese painting face.

Line and color, as the artistic language of traditional Chinese painting, have a high degree of generality and expressive power, and are able to portray characters with distinctive personalities and

inner complexity with concise ink and brushwork. Dunhuang murals inherited this tradition in its entirety and developed it to meet the needs of creating new images. The starting lines of the murals are bold, free and strong. A few strokes of earth red line, a wild running bison out of the wall; brisk wiring performance of a group of hunters running for food lively demeanor; "Penny Hill God send columns" a figure of the characters and buildings in the Department is not used to rotten (charcoal strips), hand sketches of the draft, apparently the pen, but still not lose a vivid white description of the gods. The sketch is obviously a vivid white drawing, but it is still a vivid white drawing. In the unintentional pen in the draft, often another kind of natural flow in the ink and brush to ask the interest of the sky. Dunhuang mural paintings of the shape of the line is more rigorous, the early iron line drawings, show strong and smooth, used to show the dashing and elegant characters, such as the Western Wei gods and flying sky, the combination of line drawings and images, can be said to be off five flawless. Tang Dynasty popular orchid leaf description, the center probe writing, rounded, plump, sweat thick, outside the soft and inside.

Dunhuang mural paintings at the beginning of varying degrees of Chinese style and national style, forming a self-contained system of Chinese-style Buddhist art. In this regard, the ancient painters. Made a great achievement. Worthy of praise, is based on the inheritance and development of national art tradition, drawing on foreign art when they have the kind of grandeur and choice of strict attitude. Dunhuang murals draw on foreign art, mainly in two aspects:

First, draw on foreign human anatomy.

If the sixteen countries of the era of the tomb painting and the same period of Dunhuang murals compared, can be found: tomb painting characters more broad robes and big sleeves, modeling abbreviated. And the human anatomy is not signed attention, symbolic decorative flavor dumplings thick; Dunhuang mural characters more than half-naked or nude, described in detail, the human body proportions and anatomical accuracy, and thus a stronger sense of reality. The same period, the same Chinese painters, why is there such a big difference? The fundamental reason is that Chinese painting and the Greco-Roman-centered Western painting are the same as two different systems. Chinese painting is known for its realistic style, while Western painting is known for its realism. Chinese painting, based on Confucian ritual thought, moral, ethical, wear deep clothes and robes, cover the body far, cage form in the clothes, so the characters do not see the bones and tendons, do not emphasize the three-dimensional sense, focusing on the performance of the "shape of the meaning" of the symbolic beauty of the decorative. The tomb paintings of the sixteen states of the Wei and Jin dynasties belong to this system. Dunhuang frescoes were directly affected by the content, form and expression of the Guzi frescoes, which were directly transmitted from India and Afghanistan. India, Afghanistan's Buddhist art has long absorbed the nutrition of Western art. Indian people can Europe good Chen, so the characters in the mural, especially the bodhisattva, proportionality, anatomical reasonableness, beautiful posture, delicate hand style, true expression of the human body beauty. This realistic approach, accepted by the hydrocarbon painters, greatly strengthened the fresco character anatomy rationality, to make up for the shortcomings of the Han and Jin paintings, contributing to the growth of a new national style.

Second, absorbed the Western halo method.

Chinese painting at first did not matter halo, the Warring States period began in the figure of the top decorated with red dots. Two Han Dynasty before the character face cheeks stained red, to show the color of the face, although there is a certain sense of three-dimensional, but not strong. The characters in the western region Buddhist murals, are to vermilion through the body halo, low deep and dark, high light and bright, the bridge of the nose coated with white powder, to er bulge and bright. This kind of white India's concave and convex method, to the Western region for a change, appeared on one side by the light of the halo; to Dunhuang and improved, and make it with the national tradition of halo fusion, and gradually created both the expression of the character's facial color, but also rich in three-dimensional sense of the new halo method, to the Tang and reached its peak. As the history of painting commented on the murals of Wu Jinzi said "characters have eight faces, business activities", "Daozi paintings such as plastic". So Duan Cheng style praised Wu retired son of the painting is "the wind and clouds will tease people, ghosts and gods if off the wall." Such images abound in Dunhuang murals. This new haloing method has contributed to the continuous development and improvement of the realistic style of the murals.

Dunhuang mural paintings at the beginning of different degrees of Chinese style and national style, forming a self-contained system of Chinese-style Buddhist art. In this regard, the ancient painters. Made a great achievement. Worthy of praise, is based on the inheritance and development of national art tradition, drawing on foreign art when they have the kind of grandeur and choice of strict attitude.