Imposing Paintings in Qin and Han Dynasties
4 min readQin and Han dynasties were important periods in the history of Chinese fine arts.Along with the unification of the whole country，consolidation of feudalization，as well as the development and prosperity of social economy and culture，the art of painting began to put more emphasis on its political and ethieducational function.Large amount of pure paintings such as mural painting，stone relief and brick relief，silk painting came into being and became the main stream of the painting art.The general style of painting at that time was imposing，abundant，substantial and unpretending，which is quite different from characteristics of painting in other times.
1.Mural Painting
Construction of great palaces was very important in Qin dynasty，and in the architectures built at the time numerous mural paintings were created.In the 1970s，the relic site of Xianyang Palace of Qin was found at the north bank of Wei River northeast to Xianyang in Shaanxi province.There were relics of mural painting found in both No.1 and No.3 palace sites.Mural relics in No.3 palace depict vehicles and horses，welcoming group and ceremony，buildings and palaces，flowers，grasses and trees as well as geometric devices among those images.The pictures were multicolored with black，red and brown mainly，dotted with some white，yellow，blue and green.The images under depiction well revealed the relation of compounding and decorative characteristic，which were the traits of mural painting in its early stage.
Mural paintings in Han dynasty was more developed than that of Qin dynasty.
During the 422 years of the Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties，the territory of the countries were expanded；society was relatively stable；the economy and culture were greatly developed.The promotion of the system of electing scholars by thefilial piety and honesty led the fashion of lavish funeral.Therefore，there are abundant mural paintings in tombs left to the world today.The mural paintings were about various subjects and contents including myth and legend，histories，working and production，life of the tombs owners，sacred animal images，astronomical pictures，deities of the four directions and other ornamental devices.They were epitome of history in the Han society.The representative Han murals include mura in Prince Liang’s tomb in Mt.Mangdang Shiyuan in Yongcheng，Henan；mural in Bu Qianqiu’s tomb in Luoyang；mural in Han tomb in Shaogou，Luoyang，mural in Helinge’er Han tomb in Inner Mongolia and mural in Wangdu Han tomb in Hebei.
2. Stone Relief
Stone relief was a special kind of painting dated from Western Han and prevailed in Eastern Han dynasty. Some of them were created in the Three Kingdom, the Wei and Jin period. The birth of stone relief was directly related to the system of electing scholars by the filial piety and honesty which led to the popularity of lavish funeral in Han dynasty. In order to obtain the reputation of the filial piety andhonesty, the royal family, tyrannical landowners, even some small placemen intendedto spent large amount of money to built luxurious tombs for their parents. And inthose grave rooms abundant images were carved on the wall known as stone relief.
The subject matters of stone relief varied, including the pictures of the working scene in the manor economy such as farming, harvesting, herding, weaving and salt picking. Some stone relief revealed the mastership of the tomb owner and his experiences in riding, hunting, meeting friends, practicing martial art, givinglectures and other living activities such as banquet, cooking, dancing, drama, playing chess, etc. Besides, other contents including histories, historical figures, myth, legends, auspicious signs, immortals and animals, the hosts of heaven and all kinds of devices were also profuse.
Stone relief has its unique way of manifestation. Its composition of picture includes plane arrangement and layer arrangement of images. In different areas andfor different themes, the composition could be either simple or complex. And images could be silhouette which is massy and vigorous. The sculpting skills also varied with negative carving, positive carving, plane bas-relief, arc bas-relief, high relief, plane intaglio, penetrative relief and some combination of different skills such as flat heave with negative carving. The composition of a picture is highly in harmony with the whole sculpture and contributes to the expression of image and theme.
Stone relief could be found in many places, mainly in Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Chongqing provinces. Among all the stone relief, the one in Mt. Xiaotangshan, stone relief in the Ancestral Hall of Family Wu, stone relief in Anqiu, Qinan in Shandong province, stone relief in northern Shaanxi province, stone relief in Zengjiabao tomb in Chengdu in Sichuan province, stone relief in northern Jiangsu province, stone relief in Nanyang in Henan province are the representatives.
