1. There are few pure sculpture works in ancient China, which is the main reason why ordinary people do not attach importance to ancient sculpture in China. Western sculpture originated in ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks attached importance to the human body and shaped God into a perfect flesh-and-blood person. The system, culture, philosophy and religion of ancient China were different from those of ancient Greece. In ancient times, China attached great importance to ethics, respected ghosts and gods, and tended to focus on arts and crafts, exerting artistic genius in ritual vessels and sacrificial vessels, and also formed a tradition with far-reaching influence. From pottery, bronze, jade and lacquerware and other handicrafts, practical sculptures with decorative functions have been developed, which have occupied the mainstream position in past dynasties. They are divided into two categories, one is pure handicrafts, such as pictographs and small craft carvings for display. One kind is decorative sculpture of buildings (including tombs), such as the stone carvings of tombs in the Southern Dynasties to ward off evil spirits and the stone lions in Shunling in the Tang Dynasty listed in general appreciation textbooks. Practicality is reflected not only in decorative sculpture, but also in the art of funerary wares and religious statues. Ming wares are funerary objects, among which sculptures occupy an important position, mainly figurines and animal sculptures. Generally, the textbooks take the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the burial pit of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum as examples. Figurines are substitutes for human sacrifice, and animal sculptures are also used to replace living bodies. They are very practical and not pure sculptures. The same is true of religious statues, which are used by believers to worship, and Buddhist statues are the most representative. Pure sculpture is generally represented by commemorative sculpture. In ancient China, people and events were commemorated by painting, but sculptures were seldom used. For example, heroes of Han and Tang Dynasties and emperors of past dynasties were all painted in murals and scroll paintings. China has both the historical and cultural particularities of China and its artistic particularities. We can't refuse to know, understand and appreciate the practical sculptures just because they are few.
Second, for the above reasons, the decoration of ancient sculptures in China is quite outstanding. This is the birthmark brought by its birth in arts and crafts. No matter people or animals, whether it is the art of funerary wares, religious statues or architectural decorative carvings, it generally reflects the long-standing traditional decorative interest. The symmetrical sitting posture of the Buddha statue and the patterned robes make it show strong decoration. Compared with the realistic western religious deities, the China Buddha statue has an impersonal mystery because of its decorative virtual elements, but it also contains a kind of kindness, because the decoration is different from the real life, but it is also the ubiquitous artistic reality of China people in their lives, so it has this effect. At the same time, decoration is also very effective in enhancing the solemn atmosphere required by Buddha statues. The overall shape of the stone lion to ward off evil spirits is completely decorated and deformed, just like a decorative part on bronze or jade. The body is even more wired with patterns to enhance this decorative character. Decorative deformation treatment is one of the techniques of exaggeration and generalization. Stone beasts treated in this way are often more majestic, brave and sacred than realistic carved stone beasts, and can better play their functions as architectural decoration. (To ward off evil spirits and stone lions are mostly ceremonial decorations of tombs, which are used to show the authority of the tomb owner. )
Third, the ancient sculptures in China are obviously painterly. China ancient sculpture and painting are a pair of brothers, both born in primitive arts and crafts. Since the era of painted pottery, plastic painting has complemented each other and closely combined. In ancient China, painting received much higher attention than sculpture. Sculpture has always been done by craftsmen, and literati rarely participate. Only artisans were the authors of early paintings, but since the late Eastern Han Dynasty, literati and even emperors have participated in painting creation, and since then they have become the backbone of China's ancient painting creation team. They are the rulers of the country, society and culture, and naturally they also rule the painting, making the painting position above the sculpture, and influencing the sculpture with their artistic concepts, so the sculpture is infected with obvious painting. Its painterly performance is that it pays attention not to the volume, space and block surface of the sculpture, but to the rhythm and rhythm of the contour line and the body clothing line. These lines, like painting lines, have been highly scrutinized, summarized, refined and processed, which is completely different from the western classical sculpture in terms of the rich changes of block surface and space to reflect the outline and the shape of clothing lines. The latter has a strong sense of volume, while the former has only a large volume relationship, and most parts are very flat. Sometimes intaglio lines are used to show the wrinkles of skin and clothes on the plane, but there is still no three-dimensional effect, only the plane effect of painting. Therefore, the surface of sculpture is usually smooth, and there are not so many subtle changes of light and shade in western sculpture. From this feature, the sculptures in China have followed each other from generation to generation. Up to now, most folk craftsmen still hook the draft of figure line drawing first, just like figure painting, and then copy it into sculptures. Some people draw a sketch directly on the hard material and then carve it. It is understandable to create a sculpture in this way with painting. The ancient sculptures in China are highly painterly and have an oriental taste, which is in line with the appreciation habits of the ancient people in China. They look at the sculpture art from the perspective of painting art.
Fourth, another feature of China's ancient sculptures is imagery. Western sculpture has been trying to imitate and reproduce nature since the ancient Greek period, which is very realistic. China's sculpture and painting were separated from the mother of arts and crafts very late. Chinese painting, whether meticulous or freehand, is not as accurate as western painting in sketching and depicting objects. Instead, it is mainly based on the impression gained from observation and experience, plus imagination, and is beautified by subjective processing, keeping a considerable distance from objective objects. The concept of China sculpture and Chinese painting is consistent, and it runs through the whole history of ancient sculpture. Although the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor show higher realism than other times, they only focus on the head description of the terracotta warriors and horses, and the images are only divided into several types. Not everything is different, but the body parts are very enjoyable without exception. Even the more realistic head can't be mentioned in the same breath as the western sculpture. It's just as meticulous as Chinese painting, which is more in-depth and subtle, and it still belongs to imagery modeling in essence.
5. The concise language of ancient sculptures in China is another artistic feature derived from imagery. China ancient sculpture never invented the plastic arts of western sculpture to accurately shape objects. Instead, it started from feeling and understanding, and used economic language like Chinese painting, which was concise and lively, and it was thought-provoking to win more with less, and often gave people artistic enjoyment that was fashionable, enjoyable and enjoyable. Exaggeration and even deformation to emphasize the charm of people and animals is a widely used technique, and Sichuan rap figurines and stone beasts in Huo Qubing's tomb in Han Dynasty are the most representative. Western modern sculpture, contrary to traditional realism, pursues the variability of sculpture language and the freedom of sculpture space, and is not enslaved by objective images, making artistic creation more pure. In fact, the ancient sculptures in China also reached the artistic realm of the variability of sculpture language and the freedom of sculpture space. The stone beast in Huo Qubing's tomb adopts the technique of "pictographic according to the situation", making full use of the rock, which is naturally reminiscent of the shape of an animal, and only carries out minimal artistic processing, so that the shape of the stone beast shows the freedom of space without haggling over the shape.
6. Since China's ancient sculpture is imagery, it pays attention to "depicting the spirit with form", and it must also pay attention to the description of the head, just like China's painting. The ancients in China thought that "the leader is the master of shrewdness". ("Yellow Emperor Su Wen") "The head, where God lives, is as round as the sky." From primitive times, human faces or heads have been paid special attention to in craft decoration, which should be one of the reasons why the ancient plastic arts in China developed to pay special attention to vividness. This kind of attention runs through thousands of years. Until today, in folk sculptures and peasant paintings, the head is still the first part of the artist's performance. The parts of the human body other than the head are regarded as subordinate and less important. In this way, in the ancient sculptures and paintings in China, the big head and small body gradually became a habit. Once the relationship between the head and the body is not handled well, it will inevitably lead to uncomfortable features in the visual sense, which is unnecessary to cover one's faults for the ancients. However, excellent works often focus people's attention from attracting shortcomings to depicting wonderful heads. In addition to the head, the rhythmic body lines are used to give play to the aesthetic feeling, which makes people infected not by the accurate skill of proportional structure, but by the vivid and beautified kung fu. The giant Buddha, the serving bodhisattva and the statue of God Lux in Fengxian Temple in Longmen are all serious, but they are still beautiful, which is a typical illustration of this feature of ancient sculpture in China.
VII. The ancient sculpture style of China often embodies the ancient philosophical spirit of China. Influenced by Confucian philosophy, which respects destiny, China's art is reflected in lofty, solemn, magnificent, solemn, elegant and so on. Taoist philosophy worships nature, but in art, it is characterized by elegance, boldness, simplicity, simplicity, indifference, innocence, childishness and so on. Both Chinese painting and sculpture have the style characteristics of these two systems, such as Buddhist statues and tomb sculptures, which generally have the style of the former system, and the giant Buddha in Fengxian Temple in Longmen is the most typical. It was built at the expense of Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty, which embodies the spirit of an emperor, and its style must emphasize loftiness, solemnity, respect for mu and elegance. Most of the figurines and animal sculptures in the art of funerary wares belong to the style of the latter system. They are closely related to life, pursuing nature and being simple and lovely in style. Both have their own interests and advantages. Chinese painting and sculpture, on the other hand, are interested in returning to nature, returning to maturity, and pursuing an inner beauty, an original beauty, and a philosophical spiritual realm of ingenuity.
VIII. A large number of ancient sculpture heritages in China belong to Buddhist statues, and Buddhist art has its own special track of rituals and forms its own characteristics. Buddhist art originated from ancient India, and Buddhist sculptures in China originated from the Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara, Matura and Khedu in ancient India. In the process of learning imitation, China artists gradually transformed them, which not only preserved some styles of origin, but also reflected more China characteristics. The body movements of Buddha and Bodhisattva, especially gestures (called "handprints" or "impressions") have different meanings. All kinds of Buddhist figures have different shapes according to their identities (for example, some have three heads and six arms, some have thousands of hands and eyes), different clothing signs (for example, the Buddha and Lohan wear simple robes, while the Bodhisattva wears gorgeous clothes), and different postures (for example, the Buddha stands only after receiving the Buddha, and all other Buddhas take a sitting position). If you don't understand, it's easy to think that Buddhist statues are grotesque and similar.
9. In the process of learning imitation, China artists gradually transformed them, so that they not only preserved some styles of origin, but also reflected more China characteristics. The Indian Gandhara Buddha statues were influenced by the classical sculpture in the Hellenistic period, and they also had an evolution process of sculpture localization. Therefore, when appreciating the ancient Buddha statues in China, comparing them with the ancient Greek and Indian sculptures will help to deepen our understanding and understanding of their aesthetic differences. At the same time, we need to know the rituals of Buddhist statues. The Buddha statue mentioned above has two ears and shoulders, and its hands are over the knee, which comes from the rules and regulations. Buddha statues have the so-called "thirty-two phases" and "eighty kinds of goodness" in images, with two earlobes and shoulders, and hands over the knees. Another example is the blue phase of the snail, the bun on the top (not an ordinary bun), and the fine phase between the eyebrows, which can be expressed through plastic arts, and must strictly meet the requirements when sculpting. The body movements of Buddha and Bodhisattva, especially gestures (called "handprints" or "impressions") have different meanings. All kinds of Buddhist figures have different shapes according to their identities (for example, some have three heads and six arms, some have thousands of hands and eyes), different clothing signs (for example, the Buddha and Lohan wear simple robes, while the Bodhisattva wears gorgeous clothes), and different postures (for example, the Buddha stands only after receiving the Buddha, and all other Buddhas take a sitting position). If you don't understand, it's easy to think that Buddhist statues are grotesque and similar.
Introduction-
The development history of China sculpture art is a small microcosm of the development of the Chinese nation, and it is also a microcosm of individual self-consciousness from awakening to self-consciousness. In the prehistoric remains, we saw the awakening of self-consciousness, in the modeling of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, we saw the awakening of individual dignity consciousness, and in the Han Dynasty, we saw the awakening of moral concepts and freedom consciousness. In the subsequent development, the secularization tendency is closely related to the establishment of individual values. Sculpture itself, which extends from the ancient meaning of witchcraft, can also carry profound spiritual content in its early stage. However, with the continuous growth of individual self-awareness, the original spirituality of sculpture is becoming less and less, and whether it is mausoleum sculpture, funerary works or Buddhist statues, it is developing towards secularization. This kind of development reached the end of the road in the Ming and Qing Dynasties because the concept and technology were basically closed.
the impact of western civilization on China's traditional culture is the premise for the tradition to gain new vitality; So is the traditional sculpture in China. Thanks to this new impact, we can see new hope when the traditional sculptures in China are at the end of their tether. Modern China sculptures are basically shaped according to western concepts, which are obviously different from traditional sculptures in China. No matter what the level of these new works is, at least they are relatively pure in the language of sculptures, and they are indeed different from those of Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Contemporary sculpture art in China
Introduction-
The main force of contemporary sculpture in China is the vast number of folk sculptors, who have inherited and developed the tradition of sculpture art in China and created a large number of works. They have a complete set of traditional expression methods, which are rich in forms and have a wide range of subjects, and have always been loved by the masses.
Now the main introductions are as follows: the ceramic sculptures in Shiwan, Guangdong and Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. The ancient historical figures created by artists, such as the statues of great poets Qu Yuan, Du Fu and Li Bai, are all quite successful works. In recent years, the monk and his party, created by the old artist Liu Chuan, shows the moment when outstanding astronomers in the Tang Dynasty observed the universe. The work has both form and spirit, is simple, calm and rich in color glaze, and has a strong local style. Ceramic sculpture has the advantages of being easy to copy in large quantities, low in price, bright and beautiful in color and not easy to fade, and it is a popular art. Small colored sculptures are generally called "clay figurines" or "clay dolls", and they are also a popular folk sculpture art, most famous for "Huishan clay figurines" in Wuxi, Jiangsu and "Clay figurines Zhang" in Tianjin, Hebei. Huishan clay figurines are known for their themes such as "Da Afu", "Shouxing" and "Renxian". Now it has expanded its contents, such as General Harmony, likui jy, Dai Doctor and so on. In recent years, The Romance of the West Chamber, written by Chen Gang and Zhang Xiaoquan, has been developed and improved on the basis of the tradition of Wuxi clay figurines, which is a remarkable work. Tianjin clay figurine Zhang Caisu has a history of more than 14 years. Its founder is Zhang Mingshan, and now it is the third generation and the fourth generation. The famous artists are Zhang Jingzuo, Zhang Ming and Zhang Yue. After liberation, he kept bringing forth the old and bringing forth the new, and created many new works, such as Cai Wenji, Stepping on a Thousand Miles of Snow in the Plateau, Jiang Menshen, Wu Song Killing the Tiger, Landmines Blooming, Particles Returning to the Public and so on. Zheng Yuhe, a famous color plastic artist, absorbed the strengths of various schools and created his own unique artistic style, such as Lin Chong and Hate Fa Hai. The same characteristics of these colored sculptures are: exaggerated modeling, bright colors, full of life interest and fascinating. Ivory carving has long been a favorite of emperors, nobles and rich people. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it also turned to serve socialism. Guangdong's tooth carving has been famous for its hollowing-out skills for nearly 3 years, and it is good at carving multi-layer tooth balls, flower boats, lanterns and dragon boats. In recent years, artists have carved a 41-story special-shaped ball "Running to People" by using the technique of carving flowers.