The Artistic Style of A 'ai Grottoes

The artistic style of the A 'ai Grottoes is completely influenced by the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, which is closest to the Western Regions. From Sui Dynasty to Tang Dynasty, Mogao Grottoes flourished, and Mogao Grottoes built the most caves. In terms of mural art, the murals of Mogao Grottoes in the early Tang Dynasty have undergone epoch-making changes in content and form. Among them, the maturity of the changed plan is the most remarkable achievement. The paintings of Mogao Grottoes were developed on the basis of the prototype of Sui Dynasty. The changed painting is a giant structure with murals. The classic paintings in the early Tang Dynasty mainly include Amitabha Sutra, Big Dipper Sutra, Endless Life Sutra, Mile Sutra, Vimalakīrti Sutra, Oriental Pharmacist Sutra, Nie Sutra and so on. The Sweet Edge of Guanwujing in A 'ai Grottoes is very similar to the Sweet Edge of Guanwujing in Mogao Grottoes, and the latter is a model of the former. There were more than 20 shops in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in Tang Dynasty. Its caves 17 1, 172 and 148 are the representatives of this kind of murals with the largest scenes and the most exquisite paintings. There are many similarities between the concept of infinite life and the murals in Ai Grottoes. First of all, the overall composition adopts the "nave" style of left and right banners. Draw "Jiupin Qusheng" under the central pure land to form a concave shape. This is a unique composition form created by Dunhuang. "It was created by the artist's frustrating innovation in law." nave with banners around it should be a popular art form in the Central Plains, but as a composition form of Buddhist grottoes murals, it is probably the first in Dunhuang. According to the composition pattern of Guanwushou Warp Knitting in Dunhuang during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, it can also provide a comparative basis for the chronological division of Ai Grottoes. The figures in the murals of A 'ai Grottoes are also completely replicas of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. The figures in the Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang changed the exaggerated style of imagination in the Northern Dynasties and paid attention to realism. Character modeling is very close to real life and truly reflects the face of social life in the Tang Dynasty. Dunhuang Tang Dynasty figures are "moderately proportioned, full-faced, vigorous and solemn". When Dong Zhongshu talked about paintings in the Tang Dynasty in the Song Dynasty, he once said, "People are rich, but their muscles are stronger than their bones ... That's what happened in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that the princess's show of bones and muscles is too real. Now, paintings are better than bones. In the past, the Han Palace said that her eyebrows and cheeks were full and she knew that the Tang Dynasty was fat and beautiful. " What I remember is the social aesthetic fashion that became popular in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The figures in Dunhuang murals are the same as the unearthed cultural relics of the Tang Dynasty. The figures in the Ai Ai Grottoes are no different.

Another feature of Buddhist artistic modeling in Sui and Tang Dynasties is that bodhisattvas all have feminine charm. Bodhisattva has no gender and is exposed as a male chest, but it is graceful, charming and quite feminine. Bodhisattva wears a high bun, a palace hairpin, a lady's skirt and brocade silk, and her posture is charming. Han Gan, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, painted Buddhist paintings at Baoying Temple in Zheng Fang, Chang 'an Road. "The goddess Brahma was put in the temple, and a photo of Qi Gong Xi Xiaoxiao was taken." Song Dao said: "The statue of Brahma looks like a husband, with thick lips, long nose and rich eyes during the Song and Qi Dynasties. Since the Tang Dynasty, the brushwork has been as strict as a prostitute, so today people praise the palace doll as a bodhisattva. " All the bodhisattvas in the murals of Ai Grottoes have these characteristics. The forty-two Bodhisattvas in Watching Life Endlessly are all full of cheeks and elegant, and their headdresses and costumes are the same as those in Dunhuang murals in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Especially the three-body bodhisattva in Do Death, wearing a skirt and a ribbon, looks like a beautiful woman walking in the mountains. Manjusri Bodhisattva and Guanyin Bodhisattva on both sides of Ai Grottoes also have the above gentle charm. Manjusri Bodhisattva, in particular, sits on the left side of the lotus, with a slim figure, white muscles and slender fingers, and looks like a beautiful girl. The ornaments of the Bodhisattva in the Tang Dynasty, such as wreaths, necklaces and armbands, are rich and varied. Under the necklaces of the bodhisattvas on both sides of Ai Grottoes, there are round orb ornaments, which are exactly the same as the bodhisattvas in Dunhuang 103 Cave "Beijing Change". The traditional line drawing method of the Central Plains was adopted in the Buddhist murals in the Tang Dynasty. The lines of the murals in Mogao Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty included drafting lines, shaping lines, refreshing lines and decorative lines. The line drawing technique used in the murals of the A 'ai Grottoes is Dunhuang. In particular, the shaping line is very smooth to use. The clothing lines of Guanyin Bodhisattva on the right wall are free and easy with a pen, full of charm and quite skillful.

The main style of the murals in the A 'ai Grottoes is elegant. The crown and neckline of the characters in Sweet Editions of Guan Wujing may be gold-plated and have been peeled off by later generations. There are two kinds of headlights for Buddha and Bodhisattva: white and stone green. Silk books are mainly light stone blue, but the skirts of a few bodhisattvas are outlined in ochre color, and the overall tone is mainly stone green, which is plain and peaceful. The reconstructed building was painted with ochre window frames and fences. The whole painting style is very similar to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes 1 12, 148, 166, 2 17. It is possible that Ai Grottoes murals do not use oxidizable pigments such as silver beads, and there are no figures with dark muscles, but the method of muscle smudging is the same as that of Dunhuang Tang Dynasty murals. In addition, the murals in Ai Grottoes adopt Dunhuang-style stacking halo method. The clothing pattern on the left wall pharmacist Buddha is a multi-layer halo with the same hue and different shades.

There are many similarities between the murals in A 'ai Grottoes and those in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. For example, Ruan Xian, Zheng and drum in the musical instrument Singing Without Drum are no different from those in Dunhuang. The group pattern in the painting is the most popular pattern in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in Tang Dynasty. Another example is the outline line drawing used in Dunhuang paintings in the Tang Dynasty, which has a transparent effect, which can be seen in the Buddha headlights in the murals of Ai Grottoes and the transparent bowl of the pharmacist Buddha. The transparent bowl of the pharmacist Buddha in Ai Grottoes is similar to the pharmacist Buddha in Cave 322 of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and the transparent bowl of "Hua Bodhisattva" in Cave 334. The Lushenafo in the murals of Ai Grottoes is particularly eye-catching. The cassock is painted with images of dharma circles, showing the contents of "three realms and six roads". Draw a bell on the left shoulder and a drum on the right shoulder, symbolizing the passage of time in the morning bell and dusk drum. Draw five "Heaven and Man" on the chest. The waist is covered with perfume. The four dragons in the sea hold up Mount Sumi and the earth, with the sun and the moon hanging around, and draw a white horse below. Draw a round wheel on your knees, which is filled with heaven and man and samurai. From top to bottom, the left arm consists of Heaven, Man, Asura and White Elephant. There is only one sitting knot and a half-length white horse in the right arm. Similar to Ai Grottoes, there is a set of Rushna Buddha in Kumutula Cave 9 (now blurred), which is close to Ai Grottoes. There are two important statues of Rushena in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, among which the one in Cave 428 in Northern Zhou Dynasty is the most famous. The other is Cave 446 in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. There is also a Buddha statue of Lushena in the Dunhuang silk book The Change of Gratitude collected by the British Museum. There are also "three realms and six roads" painted on the Buddhist cassock, with Mount Sumi as the center and surrounded by Buddha, heaven, earth and hell. Although the content layout is very different from that of the A 'ai Grottoes, it is the same with Xu Mi as the center. According to scholars' research, the Rushnafo discovered in Hexi area of China is centered on Mount Sumi. In the local cave paintings in Qiuci, such as Cave 17 of Qizil Grottoes, there is a crowded and light-weight standing Buddha, which many scholars think is the Lushenafo. It is very different from the Lushenafo in the nearby Ai Grottoes. Murals of Rushna Buddha have also been found in Hotan and Yanqi areas of Xinjiang, but their shapes are quite different from those of Rushna Buddha in Ai Grottoes. Therefore, the Rushena Buddha statue in Ai Grottoes belongs to Dunhuang Buddhist art system.

Unlike the Han wind tunnel in Kumutura, the caves in the Ayai Grottoes are mostly in the shape of Qiuci columns, but in the form of flat square caves popular in Dunhuang and Tang Dynasty. The Han wind tunnel in Kumutura Grottoes is adjacent to the Qiuci-style grottoes, and the shape of the grottoes is mostly based on the Qiuci central column cave, so the layout of murals is set up because of the shape of the grottoes, which is very different from the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. The mural layout of the A 'ai Grottoes is close to the square vertical roof layout of Dunhuang in the Tang Dynasty. Kumutura Grottoes also have such grottoes, such as 1 1 4 grottoes, which are exactly the same as Ai Grottoes, and the mural layout is the same. Aai Grottoes and these two caves can be regarded as drawing lessons from the Tang Dynasty caves in Dunhuang, and at the same time absorbing the architectural characteristics of Qiuci Square Cave.