An Analysis Of The Coffin Board Paintings In The Gaotai County Museum Of Gansu Province

The "Hexi Corridor" is famous for its long history of Wei and Jin dynasties.Especially with the many ancient tombs of the Wei-Jin period,these tombs are located in a strip of land,which is between Wuwei and Dunhuang.Since in the early 1940s,scholars have excavated a large number of the Wei-Jin period graves in Dunhuang,Jiuquan,Jiayuguan,Gaotai and Wuwei.Many portrait bricks,wooden figurines,pottery and wooden coffins appeared in front of people.These objects have not only drawn a large amount of content but also had rich subject and various performance techniques.It is considered a strong witness to the artistic development of Hexi region in the Wei-Jin period.Up to now,there have been many researches on tombs painting and portrait bricks,but it has been rarely mentioned the other medium of the burial space,which was the wooden coffins with painting in the tombs.The wooden coffins painting was an important part of the funeral culture.So the ancestors of the Wei-Jin period drew their beliefs and expectations on the wooden coffins.A number of wooden coffin painting were found and kept well in Hexi region after the millennium because of the unique natural environment.Although the wooden coffin painting were quite different from the portrait bricks,they all still had the primitive religion of eliminate evil and the soul of heaven.This paper will focus on the nine wooden coffin painting which were displayed in the museum of Gaotai county,Gansu province.From the research angle of Image study,combining with historical data,it showed that in the exploration of the subject matter in the wooden coffin painting and the wooden coffin painting style as well.It is the research on the subject matter and artistic form of expression which included in the nine pieces of wooden coffin painting in the museum of Gaotai county.The main body of this paper is divided into three parts.The first part is a summary of the nine wooden coffin painting in the museum of Gaotai county,including the regional history,culture and environment of Gaotai area,the discovery of the wooden coffin painting in Gaotai area,the funeral custom of Gaotai area in the Wei-Jin period.The second part and the third part are the key parts of this paper.The second part will use the method of image study,it's the aim to explore the different image analysis in the wooden coffin painting,comparing the image of wooden coffin with other regions in China,which in the adjacent region,or at the same time,to analyze the inner meaning of the wooden coffin painting.The third part mainly study the art style and regional characteristics of the wooden coffin painting in Gaotai area,analyzes the artistic expression form of the image on the wooden coffin and the prepared Chinese ink writing and color of image.