Abstract

Screen-style frescoes, found in the temples of Gaoping County, Shanxi Province, China, and originating mostly from the Qing Dynasty, present a unique painting form. Folk artists not only painted the screen, a common object in everyday life in ancient China, on the wall surfaces, but also created a variety of paintings inside the screen panels, whereby the viewer sees a painting within a painting. This article, based on multiple field trips, aims to analyze screen-style frescoes in terms of their locations, styles, and unique artistic characteristics such as subject matter, color usage, and brushwork. By studying the influence of literati paintings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the author also reveals the aesthetic transition from religious scenes to secular life as presented in the temple frescoes in ancient Gaoping County.

Highlights

  • The screen, as a common type of furniture and architectural element in ancient China, serves the multiple purposes of shielding from the wind; partitioning interior spaces, most often to create privacy; and functioning as both a painting medium and a decorative artwork (Wu 2009)

  • The screen-style frescoes account for 57.8% of all the mural paintings discovered in Gaoping all frescoes

  • Screen‐style frescoes in the temples of Gaoping County epitomize the secularization of Qing‐

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Summary

Introduction

The screen, as a common type of furniture and architectural element in ancient China, serves the multiple purposes of shielding from the wind; partitioning interior spaces, most often to create privacy; and functioning as both a painting medium and a decorative artwork (Wu 2009). By delineating realistic paintings of the screen on wall incorporating its spatial relations to the temple architecture and statues, painters of such screen‐style surfaces and incorporating its spatial relations to the temple architecture and statues, painters of frescoes successfully create a unique painting form based on visual translation. Such screen-style frescoes successfully create a unique painting form based on visual translation

Current State of the Extant Screen-Style Frescoes
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The Method of Painting
Findings
Conclusions

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