Exploration For Subtle Clues Of Metaphoricity In Chinese Oil Portraits

One of unique attractions of oil painting comes from their subtle expression of their underlying metaphoricity.The expression of their metaphoricity is usually derived from the combination of emotions the artists exerted on the artwork and readers'emotional search for deeper meaning.The creation of metaphor results from differentiation of artistical expression and human society's historical development.This article is dedicated to analyzing functions of metaphoricity in oil portrait.The first chapter emphasizes on describing concept of metaphor and its contribution to oil portrait's development,listing several monumental examples of metaphorical artwork ranging from renaissance era to modern time.Ever since 40 years ago,Chinese economic reform and importation of advanced western artistic theories have been broadening our artistic prospects and impacted our society as a whole.In this cultural background,the convey of humanism and visual metaphoricity in art pieces became the hallmark of Chinese contemporary oil portraiture.So the second chapter focuses on metaphor's reflection on works of contemporary artists such as ZhongLi Luo,Ge Chao,XiaoGang Zhang and Yan Mao.The third chapter talks about my own journey of artistic creation.The last chapter serves as summery for this article,concluding metaphor's influence on oil portrait's history and orientation for my future work.I hope,by further study and discussion of metaphor,we can gain deeper understanding and appreciation of our predecessors'work and therefore make breakthrough in our current artistic expression for oil paintings.