Perceptual treatment of sculpture space
Whether it is Yungang, Dunhuang or Longmen, sculpture and painting in almost every cave have formed a complete world that echoes and is interrelated with each other. Statues are the protagonists of grottoes, and generally Buddha statues are in the form of circular sculptures. The circular or lotus petal-shaped halo of its backlight and body light is painted or embossed on the wall of the niche behind it. The images of disciples and bodhisattvas on both sides of this Buddha statue are mostly in the form of circular carvings, while the images of donors are mostly painted on the walls, with decorative flowers or flying clouds painted on the niches, and the whole wall in the cave is full of plots and scenes of Buddhist stories. Form a unified artistic world with master, background, care, rhythm and subtle changes. It is impossible to understand the true content and significance of painting or looking at sculpture in isolation. In such a unified art world, all kinds of modeling methods play a role together, showing the overall momentum.
China sculptures are often depicted in the background. After all, independent circular sculpture has certain limitations in expressing spatial volume, and the carving and painting of images in the background can play a meaningful supplement. China's unique art of combining plastic painting with space is decorative, and the ethereal artistic conception of landscape painting makes the limited space far-reaching and infinite.
Write God in form, emphasizing expression and emotional factors.
Vivid expression is the highest aesthetic requirement of China's art, and facial expressions can best express people's thoughts and feelings. The solemnity of the Buddha, the kindness of Guanyin, the anger of the heavenly king and the fierce strength of the mule are all conveyed through subtle changes in people's eyes and lips. Of course, eyes can't be separated from the harmony of five senses, and expressions can't be separated from the representation of body movements. In addition to the vividness of the individual image itself, vividness is also manifested in the relationship between characters and the overall artistic conception of the huge statue.
The most beautiful human sculptures in grotto art, the flying gods, bodhisattvas and diners in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, are often richly dressed and have rich expressions. China's human body sculpture attaches great importance to clothing depiction, showing extraordinary artistic creativity. Not only can it truly depict the weight of the clothing texture of the statue, but people often express the gentry's dynamics and figure through the changes of clothing lines, and even skillfully use the characteristics of clothing lines to set off the spiritual temperament and internal character of the characters. Most sculptures in the west are nude portraits, and clothing is not a tool to express the feelings of the characters.
Everything is expressed through bare muscles, facial expressions and external dynamic postures. This also constitutes a major feature of China sculpture.
The art of lines
The expressive force of China's painting with thick lines also affects the style of China sculpture. China traditional sculpture takes volume as the main means of expression, supplemented by expressive and formal lines, which has a distinctive oriental national style in the world sculpture.
Compared with sculpture modeling methods that highlight lumps and light and shadow effects, highlighting line effects is a very common modeling method. China's sculptures summarize the shape and expression of objects in the form of jujube lines abstracted from everything, which can achieve a satisfactory three-dimensional effect. This effect is not in the form of sculpture reality, but outside the form. It comes from the viewer's mind and is a three-dimensional sense of space supplemented by subjective spirit.
In Buddhist statues, Ye Ying's "thinness" and the "fierceness" of the Heavenly King are often depicted with thick lines, and the horizontal lines below the neck of the Bodhisattva are depicted with thin concave lines to show the richness and delicacy of its skin. In dealing with the lines of figures' clothing, we can see the kung fu and charm of the lines. For example, the Buddha's niche on Maijishan 16 statue tablet, the performance of lines has reached a superb realm. Because of the sitting posture, the wide dresses of Buddha III in the Buddhist shrine are all in clusters, hanging in a stack. Hard stones are carved into light and soft fabrics, like satin and velvet, and stones actually produce the luster of textiles. These lines are often as handy as brushes. The overlapping lines of dresses rotate freely, and the movement of the human body inside the clothes is skillfully displayed. The beauty and vitality of the lines themselves are also fully displayed through the rhythm and rhythm of the lines. The sense of space caused by the plastic lines of China's sculptures is not limited to the figure, but it has a kind of aesthetic feeling that is completely different from the real sense of space of western mass sculptures.
Stylistic tendency
However, the traditional sculptures in China, which are restricted by Buddhist rituals and thoughts, have long been influenced by Indian Buddhist sculptures in terms of subject matter, modeling and aesthetics. System; It is the specification of stylized theme and expression, including theme content, modeling convention and configuration principle. Although Buddhist statues have rich titles, they can all find their origins and modeling basis from Buddhist scriptures. In this regard, artists engaged in the production of Buddha statues have no creative freedom and must be regulated by classics, models and chalk books. The five standard models of figure modeling (size, level, front, space management position, color configuration and figure dynamics) also result in the typology of figure form, which limits the improvement of sculptor's realistic ability to some extent. The above modeling rules limit the basic performance effect of Buddhist art. It has repeatedly deepened its religious content and aesthetic function with an unchanging face, and achieved unique modeling effects. They represent religious and aesthetic ideals.
The maturity and stylization of Buddhist sculpture art have almost become synonymous, and this stylization tendency is more obvious in the later period.
Undoubtedly, it has had a great influence on the traditional sculptures in China, and its content has changed from expressing people and animals as the theme to focusing on the religious worship of Buddha and Bodhisattva. In terms of skills, from simple to exquisite. The style has changed from majestic and graceful to solemn and rich.