On Decorative Arts Of Brick And Stone Scriptures At The Grand Qiao’s Courtyard

As one of the wealthy businessmen in Shanxi, the Qiao’s living in the Grand Qiao’s Courtyard attached great importance to the courtyard, which could be reflected from their special location selection, large-scale construction and elaborate building decoration. Qiao’s Grand Courtyard is worthy of deep research in many aspects. Aesthetically, the research highlights include architectural modeling, architectural color paintings, wood carvings, brick carvings and stone carvings, etc. In this paper, decoration arts of brick and stone decorations of Shanxi Grand Qiao’s Courtyard are sorted out and analyzed by field survey in combination with literature from the perspective of cultural connotations, subjects, formalistic beauty and floor plan of the decorations.Grand Qiao’s Courtyard, located in Qi County of Shanxi, is solemn and magnificent. In terms of appearance of the courtyard, its building complex appears grand and splendid, while the scriptures and decorations look agile and charming inside the courtyard. It may be found from the decoration subjects that the Qiao’s attached much importance to Confucian and auspicious cultures. All textures of brick and stone scriptures at the Grand Qiao’s Courtyard were highly decorative and artistic, exhibiting exact styles, well-designed composition, exquisite crafts, elaborate carvings and smooth wonderful lines.First of all, historical origins of brick and stone scriptures at the Grand Qiao’s Courtyard are described to reveal cultural connotations of the decorations. Next, subjects of the aforementioned decorations were illustrated. Subsequently, the decorations of brick and stone scriptures at the Grand Qiao’s Courtyard were analyzed and summarized based on the law of formalistic beauty. Finally, the lessons and enlightenments of the decorations for modern arts and designs are discussed.