What are the main functions of stone relief and brick relief in Han Dynasty?

Stone reliefs and brick reliefs are the most important materials in the art history of Han Dynasty, with the largest number and the richest content. This is related to the atmosphere of reburial at that time.

Portrait brick is a kind of architectural decoration component in Qin and Han Dynasties. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the early Western Han Dynasty, it was mostly used to decorate the steps of palaces and halls. After the mid-Western Han Dynasty, it was mainly used to decorate tomb walls. The Eastern Han Dynasty was the heyday of portrait brick art.

Portrait bricks are printed and fired with molds. Without carving, a brick is an independent painting. Sichuan and Henan provinces unearthed the most. The highest artistic attainments are the portrait bricks unearthed in Chengdu, Sichuan at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. These portrait bricks are solid square bricks or rectangular bricks, and the picture is stamped at one time, and the composition is complete and vivid. Sichuan portrait bricks are also unique in subject matter and content, except for a small amount of mythical content, most of them depict real life; Among them, there are scenes that reflect the social status of the tomb owner before his death, such as doors, ceremonies, trips to horses and chariots, teachers giving lectures, drinking and watching dances, and also pictures that reflect the agricultural and sideline production activities and market trade activities of the manor economy. The style is fresh and meaningful, and the local flavor is particularly strong. Representative works include Iraq Shooting Harvest figure and so on. The upper part of this picture is shot, deliberately showing the graceful posture of hunters and the movements of geese and birds; Below is the scene of harvest, full of joy of harvest.

The so-called relief stone is to carve some images on the stone, also called stone carving, which is mainly used for the construction and decoration of tombs, ancestral halls in front of tombs, stone que and other tomb buildings. It originated in the Western Han Dynasty and flourished in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are few examples in Wei and Jin Dynasties, so it is also called Han stone relief. I'm afraid it's because I'm worried that murals won't last long. Technically, this kind of stone carving highlights the characteristics of line modeling and the relationship between black and white, and has no color. It is a combination of painting and sculpture.

The scale and artistic level of the stone reliefs reflect the noble status of the tomb owner. Large-scale and high-level areas are mostly concentrated in nearby areas with rich economy, developed culture and rich stone materials. There are many stone tombs of Han Dynasty in Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places.

Shandong is an area with developed ancient culture. Confucianism, the dominant ideology in Han Dynasty, interweaves with Laozi, Zhuangzi, Yin and Yang, five elements and historical myths, and becomes the main content of stone relief. Stone reliefs have diverse themes and rich contents, including manor, car dealers, parties, banquets, wars, music and dancing, juggling, workshops, hunting, manual labor and other scenes that reflect real life, as well as natural scenery such as animals, fish, insects, the sun, the moon, stars, mountains, rivers and plants, as well as various architectural graphics and decorative patterns. Simple and heavy style, vigorous and beautiful.

Stone reliefs in Nanyang, Henan Province mainly depict mythical figures, auspicious animals and stars, such as Fuxi, Nu Wa, Dong, Queen Mother of the West, immortals, the sun and the White Tiger constellation. When the picture shows a story, it is mainly distributed horizontally, with a strong sense of movement, vigorous wildness and vitality, and Gu Zhuo's bold and vigorous style.

Most of the stone reliefs in Sichuan are rectangular, and some of them are combined into a wide map. For example, today's wide screens, such as Yan Hong Bao Gui Zhao and Jing Ke Liu Qin Wang, are all two meters long. Some stone reliefs are as long as 1 1 meter, depicting rides, acrobatics, optimistic dances, farming, cooking and historical stories.

Stone reliefs and brick reliefs, like Shang and Zhou bronzes, grottoes in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and poems in Tang and Song Dynasties, have dominated for hundreds of years and become treasures in China's culture and art.