Chapter 1944 Only when you turn it upside down do you know what it does
The lacquerware from the Mawangdui Han Tomb still followed the Chu people's custom of admiring red, with red as the main color.
The gorgeous red and black match, bright and dazzling, supplemented by ocher, gray-green and other colors.
These paints are made from mineral pigments such as cinnabar, lime yellow and lead powder mixed with lacquer and oil.
Judging from the development trend, the earlier it is, the closer it is to the style of Chu lacquerware.
The owner of Mawangdui Tomb No. 2 was buried earlier than the owners of Tomb No. 1 and No. 3.
The style of its lacquerware is similar to that of the Chu lacquerware of the late Husha Warring States Period.
The lacquer style of tombs No. 1 and 3 shows the characteristics of Han culture.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took charge of government, he accepted the theory of the beginning and end of the Five Virtues, and issued an edict in the first year of Taichu (104 BC), declaring "Correction of Shuo, Yi Fu Se".
"Historical Records: The Benji of Xiaowu" records that in the first year of Taichu, "Xia and Han changed the calendar, with the first month as the beginning of the year, and the color was still yellow."
Therefore, the system of advocating Huang was established in the form of decree.
In other words, the Chinese people's ideology that yellow is noble was established in the Han Dynasty.
This change in ideological concepts also affected changes in lacquerware decoration.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, lacquerware with yellow as the main color appeared.
Compared with the strong red and black colors commonly used in the early Western Han Dynasty, the colors used in lacquerware in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty were smooth, delicate and plump.
True black and true red were rarely used during this period.
Instead, a large amount of purple, brown, yellow-brown, black-brown, etc. are used as background colors to draw patterns.
Others may paint yellow paint on a vermilion ground and brown paint on a black ground. The span of the paint color and the background color is not large.
For example, the painted lacquer plate unearthed from the Royal Tomb No. 1 in Fengpengling, Wangcheng, Husha, has yellow-brown paint with vermilion in it and black painted clouds and dragon patterns.
The crimson cloud pattern is painted on the brown paint base, and its color scale span is small.
The lacquer paintings of this period are especially a world of clouds, curves, long lines, and thin lines.
Cloud pattern is no longer a concrete image, but a composition of abstract lines, which is a distinctive feature of lacquer painting in the mid-Western Han Dynasty.
Since the colors have changed, the inheritance and variation of decorative patterns are naturally inevitable.
Cloud pattern was the mainstream decoration in the early Han Dynasty. Cloud pattern became popular after the middle period of the Warring States Period, perhaps because people's attitude towards the relationship between heaven and man changed.
The consciousness of "fear of destiny" before the Spring and Autumn Period was gradually replaced by the concepts of "harmony between heaven and man" (Mencius), "unity of nature and man" (Zhuangzi), and "division of nature and man" (Xunzi).
In addition, Chu people are fond of ghosts and gods, and are elegant and elegant. The clouds, phoenix and bird patterns attached to the lacquerware just become the object of Chu people's romantic expression.
Judging from the lacquerware from the Mawangdui Han Tomb, the cloud patterns were more prominent in the early Han Dynasty.
The Han people love gods and goddesses, so they add various mythical beasts and gods to the cloud pattern to form a new auspicious pattern called "cloud pattern".
The cloud pattern is also combined with other patterns to form patterns such as cloud dragon pattern, cloud phoenix pattern, etc.
According to statistics, there are more than a dozen types of cloud patterns on the lacquerware of the Mawangdui Han Tomb.
These cloud patterns are like flowing clouds and flowing water, with a strong sense of movement.
The decoration of flying clouds has become the most obvious symbol of lacquerware decoration during this period.
In addition, the emergence of immortals, hunting patterns, etc. also have their own characteristics of the times.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, lacquerware patterns changed.
During this period, the artistic style of the early Han Dynasty changed. Patterns promoting filial sons, righteous men, saints, four spirits, five spirits and stories full of life appeared.
This reflects that people at that time respected Confucianism, believed in Taoism, and the ethics of "three cardinal principles and five constant principles" and "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness".
At this time, the "four spirit" patterns of green dragon, white tiger, red bird and Xuanwu were popular.
The Four Spirits, also known as the Four Gods, are originally stars that point to directions. People regard the Four Spirits as auspicious guardian spirits and often decorate lacquerware.
The white tiger, turtle, dragon, unicorn and phoenix are the "Five Spirits" pattern, which is the traditional auspicious pattern of "Five Virtues and Good Fortunes". It is a concrete reflection of the prophecy of the Five Elements in art.
The Five Elements Theory formed during the Warring States Period expanded into an all-encompassing system in the Han Dynasty through the development of Confucian scholars from Dong Zhongshu onwards.
Compared with the lacquerware decorative style that was popular in mysticism in the early Han Dynasty, the decorative patterns of this period were exquisite and mainly based on realistic or virtual and real artistic expression techniques.
Fresh compositions such as swaying flower branches or pairs of birds have become mainstream aesthetic themes.
Such as the silver buckle lacquered box unearthed from Han Tomb No. 304 in Yangjiashan, Husha.
It is decorated with gold foil appliqués, including a cross-legged old man in a red robe, an acrobat dancing with sleeves, a jade rabbit, and flying geese.
There are also patterns such as birds and animals, geometric curling cloud patterns, and the colors vary from dark to light, representing a new art style.
A lacquer box with gold foil and silver buckles was unearthed from Royal Tomb No. 1 in Fengpengling, Wangcheng, Husha. The stickers were made of gold foil with patterns of phoenix, tiger, rabbit, horse, flying bird, grass and leaves.
These patterns are collaged in an orderly manner and are gorgeously decorated, especially the finely engraved parts of the patterns on the gold foil, which are vivid and intuitive. They are art treasures of the Western Han Dynasty.
To sum up, the lacquerware craftsmanship of the Western Han Dynasty is in a prosperous historical stage in the history of lacquerware craftsmanship in my country.
It not only inherited the fine tradition of Pre-Qin lacquerware manufacturing technology, but also opened up a new field of lacquerware craftsmanship and formed unique craftsmanship characteristics.
The lacquerware unearthed from the tombs of high-ranking nobles of the Western Han Dynasty in Nanhu reflects the inheritance and variation of the functions and craftsmanship of lacquerware during this period.
It is also the epitome of the unprecedented prosperity of lacquerware craftsmanship in the Western Han Dynasty and occupies an important position in the history of the development of lacquerware craftsmanship in my country.
Of course, to be honest, throughout the Western Han Dynasty, all handicrafts were of extremely high quality.
Just like now, although Chen Wenzhe is hiding at home studying stone carvings, wood carvings and lacquerware, some gains have already been made through the clues he provided.
One of the most exquisite pieces of bronze is a very simple-looking hook.
This kind of thing has been discovered before, and it was a four-petal flower-shaped hanging ape bronze hook from the Western Han Dynasty.
This thing is a cultural relic from the Western Han Dynasty. The one discovered before is now collected in Beihe Museum.
This thing is 13.3 centimeters tall and is the site of Han Tomb No. 1 in Mancheng Lingshan.
This copper hook is shaped like an upside-down blooming flower.
It has four petals, with a long hook that curves upward between each petal.
A gibbon hangs upside down under the flower stamen. The ape turns upward, its legs are curled up, its right hand and tail hook the flower stamen, and its left arm bends upward to form a hook.
The ape and the stamens can rotate, the design is exquisite, the shape is vivid, and it is full of decorative color and realism.
Such a piece of bronze shows the high level of development and artistic achievements of handicrafts and arts and crafts in the Han Dynasty.
If you weren't knowledgeable about this thing, you wouldn't know what it was doing after seeing it.
For example, when it was first unearthed, many experts didn't know what this "strange" bronze artifact was unearthed from Han tombs in Mancheng.
I even put the copperware upside down, and finally found out what it was for when I turned it upside down!
The Han tombs in Mancheng are world-famous, and they also provide extremely valuable physical evidence for the archaeological community to study the burial system of the Western Han Dynasty.
In the Han tombs in Mancheng, a very strange bronze vessel was unearthed.
The purpose of the bronze vessel left the archaeological team puzzled.
It wasn't until the expert said something that the secret was finally revealed!