The historical development of depth representation in the Northern and Southern Dynasties paintings -- in the context of human representation

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02151
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fine art history
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: Kono Michifusa 同志社大学, 文学部, 教授 (90195678)
• Research Collaborator: NI JINXIU ; WANG WENLEI ; SHIMAMURA KEIKO
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 奥行き表現 / 山水画 / 山水之変 / 壁画 / 畏獣 / 石刻画像 / 山西省

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research resulted in the following observations : 1) Triangular compositions of both flying monsters and of human groups in Northern Dynasties paintings may have been the earliest mode of expressing depth perspective in Chinese painting. 2) In the Han Dynasty, perspective was attempted by depicting the background in the upper part of the composition, and foreground in the lower part, but in the latter half of the Han period, groups of people and buildings were placed into trapezoid formations. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, figures in murals were organized into triangles to represent perspective. In the Tang Dynasty, perspective was attempted by depicting a distant object small and a near one large; in addition, this period saw the establishment of a mode of perspective depth expression in which objects are shortened as they near the horizon.

Free Research Field

美術史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ヨーロッパ絵画に較べて奥行き表現は未発達、と思われがちな東アジア絵画であるが、中国唐代には透視図法的奥行き表現が完成し、ルネサンス絵画よりも800年ほど早く、体系的奥行き表現が成立していたことを、出土遺品に依拠してその具体的展開を示すことができた。これは、二次元平面に三次元空間をどのように表現すれば自然に感じられるかという、空間認識の心理学、生理学ともかかわるであろう。また芸術的認識が成立するのは近代という見方からは、歴史学の時代区分論における「近代」の、文化における認識や定義にも資する結果ではないかと思われる。