The Representation of Mountains in Han Portraits

Abstract

The patterns and characteristics of mountains have appeared in portraits since the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The patterns of mountains in the Han dynasty depicted the real world, expressed reverence and belief in the immortal realm and were in a transitional stage of aesthetic consciousness in the metaphysics of mountains and forests. The mountains in the realistic landscape reflect life and aesthetically reflect the ideal schema of heaven and earth. Ritual symbols use fixed patterns of mountains, hunting, and war to depict the rituals of offering sacrifices to the heavens and mountains, as well as the bestowal of divine orders and mountain sacrifices. Famous mountains and rivers were the places where immortals lived in the popular imagination of the Han Dynasty. The belief in “immortality” formed two major mythological systems in the east and west, represented by the “Kunlun Mountains” and the “Three Mountains on the Sea,” which gave rise to a series of mountain patterns associated with each mythological system. In the context of etiquette and symbolism, the Han Dynasty depiction of mountain patterns developed into diversified forms, reflecting the traditional Chinese natural aesthetic approach in which “landscape painting expresses the artistic conception of the Tao through formal beauty.”