Research On Snail Image In Chinese Painting History

Snail images are often ignored or neglected in the study of the history of Chinese painting,but in fact,they appeared as early as in the rock painting in the primitive period and have been evolving in different directions for a long time.The process involves multiple painting categories and various artistic carriers,showing a rich style and appearance with high artistic value.In this paper,the typical patterns of snail images in different historical stages are taken as the starting point.Based on systematic retrieval of literature,combined with the methods of iconography,semiotics,and artistic psychology in the study of western art history,the snail images are fully interpreted.The purpose is to enrich the achievements in the field of folk-art research,and provide theoretical reference and image information of snail culture for other painting art or design art.This paper will study from five parts.The first part discusses the relationship between snails and water,between snails and Nuwa,and between snails and dragons,which leads to the thinking of the relationship between the shape of snails and the origin of Chinese civilization.It dialectically analyzes the images of snails in early rock paintings and traces the origin of snail images.As the main part of the article,the second to fifth parts focus on the four typical types of snail images popular in different periods of Chinese painting history,namely,the snail images in the burial art,the snail images in the religious art,the snail images in the literati’s library and the snail images in the folk custom.They respectively analyze the formal characteristics,symbolic meanings and causes of different types of snail images and combine them with the corresponding spirit of the times and aesthetic ideals.On the whole,the evolution of the snail image is in line with the trend of popular art,and the styles of modern and contemporary snail images are more diversified.At the end of the paper,it is concluded that the common point of different snail images is the psychology of people seeking a harmonious relationship with the outside world.