Differences between Chinese and Western relief art

The ancient Chinese relief art has a special liking for the "line" of the modeling language. It is a national characteristic revealed in the aesthetic, formal expression and artistic spirit of decoration. In the long-term practice, the characteristics of the line are more and more general, symbolic and abstract, and become an important artistic feature different from the ancient reliefs in the West. The modeling language of “line” is commonly found in the original reliefs such as the original jade, bronze watches, portrait stone carvings, Buddhist statues, architectural decoration and so on. Not only embossing, but also in some sculptures, it also shows the obvious characteristics of linear performance. In the Han Dynasty Huo to disease tomb "Ma Teng Xiongnu" stone sculpture processing, through the role of line engraving, so that the relief and the round sculpture are integrated, strengthening the overall momentum of the sculpture. The ancient Chinese reliefs, with the help of linear bumps, curves, and dense changes, are used to outline the outlines, indicating the intersection and transition of the object shape, especially in the structure and decoration treatment of the clothing, and the linear language is vivid and smooth. The features are fully utilized. "Line" is not only the main component of the image of the work, but also serves as a medium of expression, which makes the line attribute and the thought and emotion fit together, so that the "shape" and "God" are closely connected and become the artistic style of the work.

Western relief art

Western embossed art emphasizes the true and clear "body block" performance of the object, which is one of the basic modeling languages ​​for the success of Western traditional sculptures. Western classical aesthetics believes that "the sculpture holds the most faithful way of expressing the spirit of nature...expressing the sensibility of the human form and the space occupied by other natural things." 4"Carving in dealing with the image of the person... The image of a person is treated as a three-dimensional object, and it is only treated according to the form it represents in the three-dimensional space.” 5 Thus, the aesthetic concept of ancient Western sculpture is not merely a spiritual purpose, but also emphasizes the image. The overall space possesses, and its material external appearance is the form of the three-dimensional space of "body block". In the ancient times, the high relief styles in the West, although a certain amount of spatial compression, still pursue the sense of space with the undulating "volu" and "block" relationship, real and concrete reproduction of the spiritual image. Western sculptors sculpted objects as an organic space. The relationship between unity and diversity or the relationship between the whole and the part must be correct and appropriate. For the realization of the overall structural relationship, the pursuit of a tangible physical image They chose a clear "body block" modeling language, not a "line."