The artistic features of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses sculpture are mainly the combination of painting and plastic, exquisite vividness, ingenious composition, flexible techniques, unified form and content, authenticity and decoration. Because of this, Terracotta Warriors and Horses occupy an important position in the history of China sculpture, which can be compared with Greek and Roman sculptures.
Longmen Grottoes is one of the treasures of stone carving art in China. His "Twenty Styles of Longmen" is the essence of Weibei calligraphy, and Chu Suiliang's "A Que Buddhist Shrine Monument" is a model of regular script art in the early Tang Dynasty. Longmen Grottoes, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes are also called the three major grottoes in China.
The pottery figurines unearthed from the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit were originally colored, but most of the colors had fallen off when they were unearthed, leaving only mottled remnants on the pottery figurines, and some of the remaining portraits with more colors were intact. Printing or carving the names of potters on pottery figurines and horses originated from the system of "saving materials names" in Qin State in the middle of the Warring States Period, which was a means for the Qin government to manage official handicrafts, ensure product quality, and control and supervise craftsmen's production. This method was applied to the production of terracotta warriors and horses in the Qin Mausoleum. On the one hand, it strengthens the control and management of craftsmen, on the other hand, it is also conducive to improving the quality of works. Most of the craftsmen who made the Terracotta Warriors and Horses were a group of potters from the lower classes of the Qin Empire. Some of these potters come from court pottery workshops and some from local pottery workshops. There are 80 potters' names on the pottery figurines. Terracotta warriors and horses are divided into soldiers and military attaché s, and military attaché s are divided into junior, intermediate and senior. Ordinary soldiers don't wear crowns, and officers wear crowns. The crown of an ordinary military attache is different from that of a general, and even the armor is different. Among them, soldiers and figures include infantry, cavalry and chariots. According to actual needs, soldiers of different arms have different equipment.
Archaeologists found some carved or embossed characters in some hidden places of unearthed pottery figurines and horses. The number of words is very small, generally only two words, and the most one is 1 1 word; Apart from the serial number, Wen Tao is a Potter's name. Generally speaking, the names of these potters can be divided into four categories: first, those with the word "official" in front of their names are referred to as Miyako; Two, if the word "right" or "big" is placed in front of the person's name, it is called "right word" and "big character" in the province; Third, there are place names before people's names; Fourth, there are only names, most of which have only one or two words, and some have three words. Among the above four types of potters, the first and second types are potters from the central government pottery workshop; The third category is the potters in local pottery workshops; The fourth category is difficult to judge its source because the text is too brief.
The names of the official workshop workers-Miyako-style potters are all on the pottery figurines, but not on the pottery figurines. Most of them are in the hidden place at the bottom of the hem of the pottery figurines, and a few are on skirts or legs. At present, * * * has found 87 pieces, including 75 seals with the inscription 12. These fonts in Wen Tao are all small seal characters, and the stamped characters are relatively regular, and they are Yang Wen. Most of them are surrounded by sidebars, and there is no boundary between words. Most words are arranged horizontally from left to right. The scribbled words are scrawled, and the order of the words is different, either horizontally from left to right or from right to left, or vertically from top to bottom.
Artisans in folk workshops also found some Wen Tao with place names in front of people's names on pottery figurines. The names found are Xianyang, Liyang, Linjin and Anyi. Among them, Wen Tao has the largest number of "Chengyang", and the other three places have one each. Wen Tao, engraved with place names, is mostly in the hidden place of the upper body of the pottery figurines, and his handwriting is scrawled. According to statistics, Xianyang potters 19 people have clothing, insurance, wilderness, ceremony, lunch, barnyard grass, celebration, transportation, Taoism, worship, taboo and wood, which shows that the national political, economic and cultural center became Yang at that time, and a large number of excellent potters were recruited for the construction of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, and they became.
Pottery workers from the court and local pottery figurines are different in body shape, head shape, face shape and facial features, which explains the differences in artistic creation caused by the differences in their social environment.
According to the production process editor, most terracotta warriors and horses are made by firing pottery. First, make the first tire with a ceramic mold, and then cover it with a layer of fine mud for processing, characterization and coloring. Some fry first, some fry first. Uniform temperature, simple color and high hardness. Each process has a different division of labor and a strict working system. At first, the terracotta warriors and horses all had bright and harmonious colored paintings. During the excavation, it was found that some terracotta warriors and horses were brightly colored when they were first unearthed, but they were oxidized by oxygen after being unearthed, and their colors disappeared in less than ten seconds and turned into white ash. All you can see now are traces of painting.
The production of clay figurines is divided into three steps: the first step is to make large clay figurines (rough tires or first tires); The second step, on the basis of the larger size of the clay figurines, the clay figurines are re-slimed for the second time, and decorated and detailed; The third step is to assemble the head, hand and trunk made separately to complete the large-scale pottery figurines. Generally, large pottery figurines are dried in the shade and fired in a kiln at a firing temperature of about 1000℃. After the pottery figurines were burned out of the kiln, they were painted one by one, and finally the pottery figurines were made. As far as the whole pottery figurine is concerned, the production method is the combination of plastic and mold, with plastic as the main method. The terracotta warriors and horses were fired on the spot near the pit of the terracotta warriors and horses. The soil used was local loess mixed with quartz sand.
Terracotta warriors and horses are generally carefully carved. Judging from the unearthed 1000 terracotta warriors and horses, there is no similarity. Nothing is the same. Pottery makers use sculpture techniques such as modeling, piling, kneading, pasting, carving and painting to pursue artistic effects from the aspects of body, quantity, shape, spirit, color and quality. Lifelike modeling, lifelike, looks very beautiful, giving people a bright, profound, broad, spectacular and exquisite impression. Known as "the eighth wonder of the world" and "the most spectacular discovery in the archaeological history of the 20th century", this is the famous Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang.
Three pits of Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the First Qin Dynasty were found, but 1 pit was not built, which was sequentially numbered as 1 pit to No.4 pit. More than 100 chariots, more than 600 pottery horses, nearly 8,000 pottery figurines and other bronze weapons were excavated. The excavation of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang showed the world a large and well-organized Qin Shihuang Guard, symbolizing the powerful army of the Qin Dynasty. Although the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Han Dynasty have been unearthed in Xianyang, Xuzhou and Wuwei, they can't be compared with the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang in terms of scale and production technology. "The Art of War" begins with a clear meaning: "Soldiers, the important events of the country, the place of life and death, and the way of survival must be observed." From this, we can see that the ancient army occupied an important position in the country, and we can also see the mystery of Qin Shihuang's reunification of the country.
For the time being, regardless of its grand scale and fine arrangement, from an artistic point of view, it embodies a high artistic level and can be called a fine work of art. The artistic feature of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang is its high realism. The army lineup displayed in the pit of Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang was completely designed according to the actual situation in Qin Jun at that time, so the Terracotta Warriors and Horses were also made according to the actual size. The sculptures before Qin Dynasty were mainly decorative, while the Terracotta Warriors and Horses used realistic depiction, which had obvious portrait and sketch characteristics. Generally speaking, the height of pottery figurines is about 1.8 meters, and the highest can reach 2 meters, all of which are big. Generally, Ma Tao is 2 meters long and 1.7 meters high, which is as big as a real horse, with accurate proportion and vivid image. Such a large-scale group of Ma Taoqun is also a breakthrough in the history of sculpture in China. The second is vividness. The realism of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses is not simply imitated according to reality, but through artistic treatment. Different figures, different ranks, different personality characteristics and different mental outlook are all reflected in Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses. It can be seen that its modeling description not only achieves "likeness", but also achieves "likeness". The heads of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses are the most exquisite, and some of them are eyebrows, dignified and solemn; Some faces are handsome and smiling slightly; Some of them have wrinkles and mature faces ... All kinds of characters in Qin Jun are vividly represented by detailed descriptions of their faces. The vivid features of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses are also expressed through artistic exaggeration and refinement. Its depiction is not to pursue details, but to grasp the key parts for artistic treatment. For example, it is unrealistic to thicken the eyebrows to make the face feel more three-dimensional and treat the beard as flying or curly, but it highlights the personality. The same is true of Ma Tao, who portrayed the horse vividly with the general shaping method of washing and tempering. In addition to the exquisite and changeable shape of the horse's head, the limbs and chest have been exaggerated by freehand brushwork, with sharp edges and corners, prominent tendons, rounded hips and slightly concave waist, which makes them look strong and powerful. There are not too many complicated lines, which are smooth and rhythmic, making people feel like real horses, but it seems that nothing can be found in reality. Flexible and diverse artistic skills are also one of the artistic features of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang. The depiction of Qin figurines is not single, but uses a variety of artistic techniques. Contrast is one of them, such as depicting subtle armor and simple lower body clothes, exquisite military attache, hairstyle and simple figure. These contrast treatments are based on the unity of the overall effect, which makes the image simple and rich, simple and refined, and local and refined without losing the overall momentum. In addition, the Qin figurines are also the unity of round carving, relief carving and line carving, and have successfully created a vivid warrior image by using traditional folk techniques such as plastic, piling, kneading, pasting, carving and painting. Every terracotta warrior and terracotta warrior is a complete unity, which can be described as a combination of various characterization methods. In addition, the true colors of the Terracotta Warriors are actually painted. It's hard to imagine that the dusty terracotta warriors in the pit are actually colorful. Today, due to fire and natural destruction, we can't see their colorful appearance, but fortunately, there are still traces of residual color in some pottery figurines and horses. These colors are red, green, blue, white, black and yellow. It is conceivable that when the pit was built, the colorful pottery figurines stood neatly in a military posture, and the scene was so brilliant and spectacular. What is more commendable is that the colors painted on Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses are not simple and uniform, but have undergone strict color configuration, which reflects the overall color effect. Generally speaking, terracotta warriors and horses are mostly red shirts, green or blue undershirts, pink hands and faces, green or ochre sleeves and collars, black nails and red lines connecting them. These all have certain rules and patterns. This combination of painting and modeling has become a supplementary means of sculpture techniques and an indispensable part of the rich artistic expressions of Qin terracotta warriors.
The art of Qin figurines occupies an important position in the history of ancient sculpture in China. It is the inheritance and development of the artistic tradition of the previous generation, and has a far-reaching influence on the emergence and development of sculpture art in later generations. First of all, it carried forward China's realistic artistic tradition and laid the foundation for the sculpture art of later generations. Secondly, the washing of Qin figurines was inherited and developed after the Han and Tang Dynasties, which became an important artistic feature of China plastic arts. In addition, the combination of painting and modeling has injected new vitality into China ancient sculpture and broadened the development path of China sculpture art.
The art of Qin figurines is a model in the history of ancient sculpture art in China. His artistic style and techniques were inherited and developed by later generations, which made his artistic tradition go back to ancient times. Today, people from all over the world watch this world miracle with great surprise and praise. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang are the pride of our nation and the precious heritage of world culture.
Longmen Grottoes lasted for a long time, spanning many dynasties. They reflect the development and changes of China ancient politics, economy, religion, culture and many other fields from different aspects with a large number of physical images and written materials, and have made great contributions to the innovation and development of China Grottoes. In 2000, it was listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO. Longmen 20 series products are precious calligraphy works of Wei Bei. Representing the stele style of Wei Dynasty, it is tall and straight, generous and powerful, and it is the font in the transition from official script to regular script, Guyangdong 19. Located in Longmen Mountain and Xiangshan Mountain on both sides of the Yi River in the southern suburbs of Luoyang City. The Longmen Grottoes were dug in the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and after more than 400 years of large-scale construction in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, the length from north to south was 1 km. Today, there are 2,345 grottoes, more than 654.38 million statues and more than 2,800 inscriptions.
Longmen Grottoes is the most concentrated place where royal nobles made wishes and statues in the Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties. It embodies the will and behavior of the royal family and has a strong ethnic and religious color. The statues of the two dynasties reflect very different styles of the times. The statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty have lost the rough, majestic and vigorous features of the statues in Yungang Grottoes here, but the life atmosphere has gradually become strong and tends to be lively, delicate and gentle. These statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty have slender faces, thin shoulders and straight chests, and clothes lines are carved with straight knives, which are vigorous and simple. Among the numerous caves carved in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the most representative ones are Guyang Cave, Binyang Middle Cave, Lotus Cave and Cave Temple. Among them, Guyangdong concentrated a group of statues of royal aristocrats and court ministers in the early stage of the Northern Wei Dynasty's move to Luoyang, which typically reflected the historical model of the Northern Wei Dynasty's national worship of Buddhism. These magnificent stone carvings are precious records of the integration of China traditional culture and foreign civilization.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, people advocated thinness as beauty, so the Buddha sculpture also pursued the artistic style of showing bones and clearing images. In the Tang Dynasty, people thought fat was beautiful, so the face of the Buddha statue in the Tang Dynasty was round, the shoulders were wide and the chest was high. The carving of clothing patterns was made with a round knife, which was natural and smooth. The sculptures in Longmen Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty inherited the excellent traditions of the Northern Wei Dynasty, absorbed the culture of the Han nationality, created a vigorous, vivid, simple and natural realistic style, and reached the peak of the carving art of Buddha statues [8] Among the key grottoes in Longmen Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty, the grand and magnificent statue of Ashe Road is the most famous. This cliff-like Buddhist shrine carved according to Huayan Jing, centered on the elegant and extraordinary Lushena Buddha, expresses the ideal artistic conception of the Buddhist world full of peace with the image of an artistic group full of modal texture in a week. This group of statues embodies the powerful material strength and spiritual strength of the Tang Dynasty Empire, and shows the highest achievement of the Tang Dynasty sculpture art..
Longmen Northern Wei Grottoes include eight larger caves, including Binyang Cave, Lianhua Cave and Guyang Cave, and four other small caves. The entrance of Binyang Middle Cave is pointed and arched. Anger and frown are carved on the stone walls on both sides of the cave to symbolize its powerful strength, and the right hand and five fingers are placed on the chest, which is very arrogant. The layout of this cave is centered on the gods, and other images and decorations are also closely linked, which plays a role of care and foil. In the artist's design, master and slave are fully used to strengthen and weaken the religious theme centered on God. The complete layout of this cave represents the popular style of Buddhist temples in the late Northern Wei Dynasty. The appearance of this complete layout also shows the maturity of Buddhist art. The relief on the front wall of Binyang Middle Cave is an important reference to understand the level of painting art at that time, and we can understand the composition, expressive force of lines and decorative design of painting art. The relief of the emperor's patron has been mentioned in the previous section. Vimo Manjusri, as a popular artistic theme in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Longmen stone carvings, like Yungang stone carvings, are often displayed in the upper parts or gaps of some Buddhist niches, while the relief of Binyang Cave is large and complete. Wei Mojie's image is based on the characters in real life. There are many students in Dunhuang murals, but they are not very popular in the mainland. The relief of Binyang Cave is represented by a single picture, not a continuous form of Dunhuang murals. Lianhua Cave is a long, narrow and deep cave with a width of 6 15m, a depth of 9.6m and a height of 6.1m.. In the center is a 5.3-meter-high standing Buddha, flanked by two bodhisattvas, with an arhat relief on the left and right of the back wall. In the center of the ceiling is a beautiful big lotus pattern with slightly concave petals, which is very realistic and decorative, giving full play to the specialty of carving. On the arch of the entrance of the cave, there is a flaming flame pattern embossed, which is very vivid. It is a successful masterpiece of developing the treatment method of floating clouds in the Han Dynasty in the decorative patterns of the Northern Wei Dynasty. There are many small shrines on the inner wall of Lotus Cave, which were carved by people at that time. The earliest calendar year was the second year of Zheng Guang (AD 522). As you can imagine, the Lotus Cave was originally built in Zheng Guang of Tortoise (AD 5 18-525).
The walls of Guyang Cave are covered with shrines, which fully represents the ethos of advocating Buddhism in aristocratic society in the late Northern Wei Dynasty. The shape of Guyang Cave is similar to that of Lianhua Cave, but it is deeper and higher. Depth 13.5m, width 6.9m and height about11.1m. This deity has been transformed into the image of Taoism by later generations, so Guyang Cave is also called Laojun Cave. The threatened bodhisattva statue has a graceful posture. From the side, the upper body leans back slightly, and the strength of both feet is unbalanced, which has gone beyond the stage of stiff and upright. The walls of Guyang Cave are covered with niches of different sizes. There are three rows of neat large niches on the left and right walls, four in each row (there are only two niches in the bottom row of the right wall because it is unfinished). There is a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya Buddha or Duobao Sakyamuni in each niche. There are several different changes in the style of the banner above the niche, which is as decorative as the backlight and lighting behind the Buddha statue. In the gap between the major niches, there are many small niches carved later. The Buddha statues in these niches, especially those in major niches, are representative of the times and are the standard slim and clear images popular in the late Northern Wei Dynasty. The skirt hanging from the base is complex and rhythmic.
Fengxian Temple is the largest and most exquisite group of cliff statues in Longmen Grottoes. Because it belonged to Fengxian Temple, the royal temple at that time, it was called "Fengxian Temple". This cave was built in early Tang Gaozong. Empress Wu Zetian sponsored 20,000 yuan of powder in the third year (AD 672), which was completed in the second year of last year (AD 675), and each piece was more than 30 meters long. The Buddha statue in the cave clearly embodies the artistic characteristics of the Buddha statue in the Tang Dynasty, with a plump face, drooping ears, perfect, peaceful, warm and kind shape, which is extremely touching. The inscription on the north side of Lotus, the main Buddha, is called "the statue niche of Dalushena". There are nine Buddha statues here, and the main Buddha in the middle is Rushena Buddha, which is the Buddha of Sakyamuni. According to the Buddhist scriptures, Lushe means that light shines on the whole body. This Buddha statue is 17. 14 meters high, with a head of 4 meters high and an ear length of10.9 meters. The Buddha's face is plump and round, with wavy hair lines on the top of his head, crescent eyebrows and beautiful eyes, staring slightly below. Straight nose, small mouth, peaceful smile. The ears are long and slightly drooping, and the chin is round and slightly protruding forward. Harmonious, serene and comfortable, dressed in shoulder-length cassock, the garment line is simple and unpretentious, and the concentric circles of the garment line set off the head image exceptionally bright and holy. The whole Buddha statue, like a wise and kind middle-aged woman, makes people respect and fear. Some people say that when shaping this Buddha statue, noble sentiment, rich feelings, open mind and elegant appearance are perfectly combined, so she has great artistic charm.
The Northern Wei Grottoes in Longmen were the most concentrated places of sculpture art from 500 to 540 AD. These statues not only have their own regional features, but also show the overall style and artistic level of the times, such as the heavy Buddha statue in Binyang Cave, the graceful Buddha statue in Guyang Cave, the exquisite Buddha statue in the niche, the compact composition of the relief of the benefactor in Binyang Cave, the arch flame of Lotus Cave and the lotus flower at the top of the cave, as well as the decoration of various niches in Guyang Cave. They also show the design intention of expressing the unified theme of architecture and sculpture (such as Binyang Cave) and the emperor.