Research On Parallel Carvings Of Portrait Stones In The Han Dynasty

Han stone reliefs are a popular form of art representing various pictorial themesengraved by craftsmen,which are used to decorate tomb and shrines in Han Dynasty(BC206-AD220).Abundant designs in Han reliefs show craftsmen's wonderful thinkingabout how to represent people and animals in daily life.Parallel lines are one of them.Composed of straight lines,oblique lines and curve lines,parallel-line engravings fillingin the pictorial background or figures express diverse languages of describing bodystructures,and embody different logics of observing things.Plenty of Han reliefs bearingparallel-line engravings were discovered at the east coast of China,including Shandong,Jiangsu and Anhui Province.These languages and logics vary according to differentdistricts.The reason why I choose these districts mainly because the stones' quality issuitable for engraving refine parallel line decorations.How to understand the compositional rules and decorative orders of these specialdesigns?Why some Han stone reliefs are decorated with parallel lines while others arenot?What's the connection of parallel-line designs decorated on different mediums,suchas stone pillars,circular engraved statues,bronze mirrors,bronze wares?How tocomprehend people's visual experience in Han Dynasty through parallel designs?Thesequestions give birth to this dissertation.The discussions about these questions bring aboutconclusions as follows:Firstly,parallel lines on stone reliefs of different districtsrepresent different regional characters and their compositional rules partly follow theskeletal structure of human being.Secondly,it's rational that some stone reliefs bearparallel-line decorations while others do not.The coexistence of two kinds of stone reliefsowes to the different understandings about the function of lines among the craftsmen.Thirdly,the practice of curving parallel lines on stones may be associated with engravingparallel lines on bronze wares in pre-Han era.Lastly,the generation of the parallel-linedesign is probably related to the visual experience of Han artisans.And the circulation ofpattern designs is also the form of the diffusion of visual experience.While scholars are discussing other aspects of Han reliefs,such as pictorial themes,structure recovering of Han graves and shrines,etc.I hope this paper could provide a newresearch perspective and help us develop a fresh cognition of Han reliefs----the gods,people and animals engraved on the stones are not black and cold silhouettes,they arereflections of craftsmen's visual perceptions in Han Dynasty.