A Study Of The Paintings Of Xixia Grottoes In Dunhuang On The Background Of Art History

The development of Chinese art includes the contributions of various nationalities in history.The Dunhuang Grotto art presents a colorful and multi-ethnic character.The Xixia regime established by the local nation Dangxiang,who ruled Dunhuang for nearly two centuries and created the vivid Xixia Grotto painting art.The paintings of the Xixia Grottoes in Dunhuang mainly include the excavated and repainted grotto paintings of the Mogao Grottoes,the Yulin Grottoes,the East Thousands Buddha Caves,and the five temples in Subei.They contain a wide range of subjects and content.The appearance has changed a lot on the backgrounds of "The transition of Tang and Song Dynasties" and the reconstruction of Buddhist images in the 10th-13 th century.From the perspective of art history,this thesis discusses the flower and bird paintings,figure paintings,landscape paintings,architectural paintings and decorative patterns in the Xixia Grottoes in Dunhuang.In this period,the grotto paintings showed new styles such as hollyhocks,the Tang monk(Xuan zang)' journey to the west,Budai-Heshang(Cloth Bag Monk),snow scenes,Mandala Murals and,flame emblazonry.At the same time,the Medicine Buddha,the Tejaprabha Buddha,the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in Water Moon Form(Shuiyue Guanyin),the Thousand-armed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Paintings style has also developed greatly.There are various forms in the performance of paintings and these techniques were used including the painting of flowers and birds were painted on the whole wall,ancient Chinese landscape painting,line drawing,painting reduction,blank-leaving,half-frame composition,and full decoration on the top of the caves.Through the analysis of flowers,birds,figures and landscape paintings in the Xixia Grottoes,this thesis outlines a relatively complete system of Xixia painting,which comes from the result of good learning and selfinnovation of Xixia people.Especially in the late Western Xia Dynasty,its painting style and content were obviously influenced by the literati painting in the central area of China.They absorbed the Dharma of Tubo,Shazhou,and Xiliang,studied the characters technique and composition of painters in the Northern Song,Liao and,Jin,and introduced the color decoration of the Uighur people.Then they were integrated,which revealed the cultural concept,aesthetic taste and social customs of the Xixia people.The introduction of Tibetan paintings is another leap in the paintings of Xixia Grottoes.Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist art factors coexist in the same cave,reflecting the integration of Xixia paintings.At the same time,there are many life scenes in the paintings,which make Buddhist art more secular.This feature has a great relationship with the popular genre paintings of the central area of China.In addition,through the research of cave shape,the ground layer,the painting content and style of the Mogao 95 th Grottoes especially the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in Water Moon Form,this thesis proves that the time of Mogao 95 th Grottoes is the Xixia,not the previous viewpoint of Yuan,which was held by most scholars.From the above,this paper carried out a comprehensive sorting of the painting contents of the Xixia Grottoes in Dunhuang and explored its style and artistic techniques.Then,the individual images were researched,so that we can better and more comprehensively use the materials of the Xixia Grottoes in Dunhuang,and contribute to future research in this field.