The scene sculpture first existed in every corner of the building as a decorative part of the building, echoing in harmony with the building, and as a whole, because of the needs of each part of the building, it was thick or thin, or long or short, or majestic, or thin as hairspring, or thick and heavy, or thin as paper. The overall style forms a unique style according to the aesthetic needs of the period in which the building is located, as well as the geographical location, religious culture and other factors. It is also more abundant in various utensils and jewelry. This article focuses on the composition form of the scene sculpture, and explores the charm of the scene sculpture in the form of architectural expression from its composition, form, aesthetic significance and other aspects.
After meeting the basic living needs, architecture will inevitably develop in decoration and beautification, which is the basic aesthetic needs of human psychology. A large number of scene sculptures appear in classical architecture, the important reason is that sculptures can visualize fairy tales, and entrust yearning for life and recording important events.
As a part of the wall of the building, the reliefs in the Assyrian period inherited the stylism of Egyptian sculpture, but obviously broke the stereotype tradition of the ancient Egyptian period. On the basis of the overall scene plane image, the relief scene had a clear development of relief space language by grasping the composition rhythm and the theme. "Releasing and Hunting Lions" shows the number of characters superimposed by the power of war; In order to show weakness, it will increase the reserved space of objects.
The picture shows vehicles, cattle and horses, people driving, the king's surrender ceremony, lonely shepherds and sheep, as well as local representative plants and city walls. This obviously adds a lot of lively factors to the overall orderly composition arrangement. In the relief of "Releasing and Killing a Lion", the lion comes out of the cage, runs towards the crowd, and pounces violently on the hunter with spear and shield. Behind the hunter is a turbulent crowd, which is almost a dynamic comic book.
The author intentionally lengthens the space belonging to the lion, compresses the space occupied by the crowd, and increases the tension between the crowd and beasts. In this way The arrangement of "density" makes the expressiveness of the picture stronger. This is similar to the "blank" treatment of traditional Chinese landscape painting, which breaks the uniformity of the overall composition and highlights the sense of space of the scene itself.
The composition method of scene sculpture has always been restricted by techniques, materials, themes, etc., most of which are influenced by the artistic style from ancient Egypt to ancient Greece in a continuous line "Set" composition is the main. On the basis of the classic paradigm style composition, there are relatively few scenes with larger dynamics, which need more consideration in terms of both the spatial hierarchy and the proportional rhythm of the picture composition.
In the 15th century, the two reliefs of "The Hall of Sansoi Falls Down" and "The Man Dropped from the Boat" are good examples of narrative scene sculpture. The composition of "The Collapse of the Inner Hall of Sansuo" is divided into two layers, with the collapse of the middle partition building as the dramatic point. The gravity of the whole picture falls down in a triangle, but it has not yet touched the ground, forming a space between it and the scattered people on the ground floor. The man holding the pillar on the right side of the picture is tottering, and he also forms a gap with the scattered crowd. As a result, the whole composition forms a dense spatial relationship, increasing the sense of gravity of collapsed buildings and people falling. The same sense of gravity can also be seen in another relief of Bartolomeo Bleno, The Man Who Was Thrown overboard.
Using the ingenious spatial position relationship in the composition, the whole picture is divided into two parts by diagonal lines, and the mast and the curved hull seem to be a good frame The "bow and arrow" is in a straight line with the man who is about to fall into the sea. People who are thrown into the sea by boat are more like being bounced into the sea, which increases the sense of picture while narrating.
In the Northern Wei Dynasty of China, a picture of a filial son appeared on the stone coffin The unique scene composition mode of "front and back" is different from the "one-way" modeling mode of scene relief in plane expression. The story of Wang Lin, a typical Confucian figure, saving her brother from bandits, is shown on the stone coffin of the portrait of a filial son of the Northern Wei Dynasty hidden in Nelson Art Museum. The whole picture is divided into left and right sides. In the left scene, the figure comes out from the deep valley and faces the audience; In the right half, the characters walk into the deep valley and away from the audience. This one-on-one folding composition, in terms of plane space processing, reflects a complete story interpretation of Chinese tradition. All the characters in the picture are in the same space, or pointing in the same direction. "One way" is the most common expression of scene floating.
2、 Aesthetic feeling of form
The scene sculpture in the building describes the ancient civilization of the East and the West, especially the ancient western architectural sculpture, which is a history and art of stone. The nature of materials determines the style and appearance of art styles. Stone has been used beyond people's imagination in various historical periods in the West. Craftsmen have brought the material properties and aesthetic properties of stone into full play To. Architecture and sculpture often complement each other in many ways, embodying the sense of beauty while bearing the actual function.
However, at the beginning, architecture and sculpture did not blend with each other They started in different fields and also had their own unique role in the emergence period. However, with the development of time, buildings are no longer just built by people to survive and live, and people begin to pay attention to the beauty of buildings, thus further combining the two arts perfectly, producing many works with excellent aesthetic feeling.
In Greece, the scene sculptures built according to the architectural form on the Aphia Temple on the Aena Island, not far from Athens, were the most To a large extent. The triangular sculpture, which was created to solve the unique architectural structure of the gable wall, was applied to the temple of Afia. Today, there are only partial remains of the sculpture. From the restoration drawing, we can see that the creator skillfully attached the sculpture to the building through the combination of standing, squatting and lying positions, which not only solved the problem of roof stress, but also made it have a decorative role.
Gothic architecture in medieval Europe also has a typical scene Taking the figures in the door frame of the west porch of Chartres Cathedral in France as an example, the space modeling of the sculpture completely relies on the form of the whole door frame, the door column is tall, and the space inside the door frame is narrow and tall, so it is limited that the figure sculpture can only be completed in this long space, the style of the sculpture is relatively rigid, and even the feet of the figures are inclined to the ground. The figures are elongated without any more movements. Their movements are similar. Even their raised arms are at the same angle and height. Their body lines and shadows serve the building where they are. They stand on both sides like two pillars.
The arch of the gate is composed of small statues of religious saints, which are listed in a circle. Almost all of them keep the same action. It does not highlight the personality of a saint, but creates a dignified atmosphere to awaken the dome door. The inflexibility of the figures does not mean that the craftsmen in the Middle Ages lacked realistic sculpture language, but rather a superb expression of artistic language. Many historians regard the art of the Middle Ages as a kind of art that restricts human nature and is rigid and low skilled. However, the author believes that the craftsmen in this period had a comprehensive spiritual quality, both architects and sculptors Their sculptures are like architectural accessories For those who obey the overall architectural style, there is a sculpture language that is almost integrated with architecture.
The composition of the scene sculpture plays a huge role in the limited capitals, plinths, sloping roofs and other parts of the building. It strongly adorns the building and usually describes the social background, customs and religious beliefs of the building in a narrative way. Earliest It has the function of reading pictures and speaking. In order to facilitate people to know the gods, religions and cultures enshrined in this temple (building), sculpture is the best way to tell stories Good presentation. The composition creates the artistic effect of the whole relief, which is the core value structure of the scene sculpture.
Therefore, before we trace the origin of the scene sculpture, we have to mention the relationship between it and painting. The discussion of painting in the scene sculpture is also different from the simple painting discussion of ordinary sketch and color, but it is the exploration of classical significance brought by the convergence of image. There are many differences between China and the West in the performance of small scenes in the local part of the building, which is due to the differences in artistic expression caused by cultural differences.
The tendency of the content of the picture can be the same, which is to express a certain theme. However, due to the different cultural systems of the East and the West, there are great differences in the relationship between people in the specific shaping of the scene. The contact between people and objects will inevitably lead to a variety of perspective relationships. When Chinese artists shape scene sculptures, the relationship between characters will leave necessary space between them.
It is precisely because of this that Western scene sculptures will introduce more perspective relationships into paintings to solve the problem of spatial location confusion caused by too many overlapping layers of character relationships after the compression of reliefs.
Some temple buildings have inherited the form of Indian temples, focusing on Buddhist themes. Sculpture and architecture are integrated, and the composition form is extremely complex. The Borobudur was built as a whole stupa. Seen from the top down, it looks like a mandala in the Buddhist Vajrayana, and represents the vast world and deep heart of Buddhism. The tower base is a square with a side length of about 118 meters. The tower has nine floors. The six floors below are square, and the three floors above are round. At the center of the top floor is a round pagoda. The building material of the pagoda is about 55000 cubic meters of stone from the nearby river. These stones are cut into proper sizes and connected with mortise and tenon joints.
After the building was completed, the craftsmen carved reliefs on the stones. The Borobudur has about 2670 reliefs, including 1460 narrative reliefs and 1212 decorative reliefs, covering the facade and cloister of the building. The relief covers a total area of 25000 square meters and is distributed on the hidden tower base and body. Narrative reliefs are divided into eleven groups, surrounding the whole building, with a total length of three kilometers. Section One group of reliefs is in the hidden tower base, and the other ten groups are distributed on the lower four floors of the tower from the east gate of the Borobudur. Narrative reliefs on the wall are distributed clockwise, while those on the cloister are distributed in the opposite direction. This distribution pattern is in line with the right-handed ritual of Buddhists when they worship holy sites: believers circle clockwise, and holy sites are often on the right side.
The relief in the hidden tower base narrates the law of karma in Buddhism. Tower body The reliefs on the first floor are divided into two columns, one hundred and twenty stone slabs for each column. The upper column describes the life of the Buddha, the lower column and the tower body 1、 The cloister on the second floor together narrates the Buddha's former life (this life). The rest of the reliefs tell the story of Sancai's fifty-three ginseng cultivation.
Religion dominates society in both East and West The spiritual dominance of the right. In that era when almost all people believed in religion, from the ruling class to the people, all the people threw themselves into God and Buddha, and the whole family made contributions. Since ancient Egypt, sculpture and architecture have coexisted, reflecting the meaning of life. Because sculptors have The meaning of "making people live forever" is the consistent unity of style and purpose, so temples, churches, pagodas, and steles have good construction conditions and reasons. Therefore, the scene sculptures on the buildings also have rich expression carriers, and the formal beauty has been infinitely improved with the development of society.
3、 Some Thoughts on Scene Sculpture in Traditional Architecture
Hegel thought "Sculpture is also a purely perceptual material thing that shapes the space image according to the form of its material occupying space, but sculpture is different from architecture. Sculpture does not transform the inorganic material with opposite spirit into an environment that meets the purpose created by spirit, and the purpose of transformation into form is not inherent in these forms but external" Sculpture and architecture themselves belong to spiritual expression, but in Hegel's view, sculpture can more independently express the artist's personal feelings, and architecture can not be separated from the external form.
As a result, under the daily habit of appreciating European civilization and Asian civilization, the composition of scene sculpture will form a certain way "Stereotype", especially the Greek civilization, which pursues the beauty of human body and eternal beauty, most dynamic designs tend to be stable in structure. Even if there are some distorted scenes like Laocoon, it is still inseparable from some classic dynamic internal structures and thematic tendencies.
In other parts of the world, there are some innovative scene sculptures to express movement. In the sense of composition, they are closer to painting. Although they are round sculptures, they have a distinction between primary and secondary perspectives. The performance of the theme is not the same religious theme. There are some real shaping performances about life and the nation, which are valuable. For such ME sculpture in the traditional sense of conventional composition form, we can still obtain the possibility of scene sculpture in the expressive force.
For the existing sculpture parts or individual sculptures, we should consider the comprehensive value from the perspective of the overall scene, including the environment, how the creator handles the composition of the sculpture, the coordination with the surrounding environment, and the architectural location of the overall scene sculpture. Whether the sculpture in the scene can show the conflict and dislocation of the context through the implication of the specific scene meaning. Scene sculpture is related to the events or metaphors behind it, resulting in conceptual association and contextual transformation beyond the techniques of scene sculpture, and then, with the help of traditional sculpture There is more in-depth thinking about society and human nature on the effect model of empathy aesthetics produced by "the influence of form".
Hainan Sculpture