The Art Study On Cliffside Statues In Nankan,Bazhong

As a buddhist stone carving art,On-precipice Bas-reliefs carries people's spiritual needs and cultural beliefs.Bazhong is one of the areas with the largest and most concentrated distribution of Bas-reliefs On Precipices in sichuan,while the Nankan Grottoes is the largest and best preserved group of statues in bazhong.Its statues have diverse themes,distinctive features and rich connotations,which are of great artistic value.At present,there are only a few academic articles with the Nankan Grottoes as their main research objects,and most of them are related to archaeology and history.With the On-precipice Bas-reliefs in the Nankan Grottoes as the research object and a lot of firsthand materials gained by field investigation as a solid foundation,and by integrating methods of image analysis and religious culture with related theories of art history and art principles,this thesis seeks to conduct a comprehensive and detailed research of the image subjects and expressed themes of the On-precipice Bas-reliefs so as to show its artistic features and cultural value.This thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.The introduction elaborates the research significance and the domestic and overseas research status,summarizes the research content and methods,and defines the research scope.The first chapter in the text mainly expounds the historical background,geographical location and distribution of the On-precipice Bas-reliefs in the Nankan Grottoes.In the second chapter,the image analysis method is used to explore the selected subjects,expressed themes and adopted carving techniques of the statues,sort out and summarize the basic situation of the On-precipice Bas-reliefs in the Nankan Grottoes,and grasp the styles and characteristics of the fusion of Buddhism and Taoism.The third chapter,from a religious culturology perspective,tries to elaborate the western pure land illustration ideas embodied in the On-precipice Bas-reliefs of the Nankan Grottoes,clarify the religious and cultural background of the rise of the pure land statue art with factors of the times considered,and analyse the unique artistic beauty of the On-precipice Bas-reliefs of the Nankan Grottoes which not only embodies the combination of nobility and solemnity,but also highlights the tendency of femininity and secularization of the appearance of bodhisattva.Meanwhile,compared with the grotto statues in other areas,the On-precipice Bas-reliefs of the Nankan Grottoes show a unique regional color due to the differences in economic conditions,geographical location or cultural background,which can to some extent provide a glimpse of the local historical life at that time.The fourth chapter takes an in-depth probe into the realistic significance and cultural value of the On-precipice Bas-reliefs of the Nankan Grottoes.As the expression carrier of buddhist culture,the On-precipice Bas-reliefs not only reflect the sanctity and charisma of buddhist culture,but also vividly and concretely convey the educational function of buddhist thoughts.The On-precipice Bas-reliefs of the Bazhong Nankan Grottoes,as a “living historical fossil”,shows pictures of vivid historical lives with its many spectacular statues,and also witnessed the development of Buddhism and Taoism culture in Sui and Tang dynasties.Its exquisite carving skills and artistic characteristics of mutual-unified symbols and themes all provide significant reference for later generations.