Open AccessDual Portraits of the Deceased in Yangqiaopan M1, Jingbian, Shaanxi
Author(s) -
Leslie V. Wallace
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
asian studies/asian studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.23
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 2350-4226
pISSN - 2232-5131
DOI - 10.4312/as.2019.7.2.203-219
Subject(s) - portrait , elite , dual (grammatical number) , front (military) , politics , identity (music) , art , ancient history , history , visual arts , aesthetics , geography , literature , political science , law , meteorology
Murals decorating an Eastern Han tomb excavated in Jingbian, Shaanxi include two large-scale representations of the deceased who appears in a processional scene on the left front wall of the tomb wearing typical Han elite dress, and then again on the rear wall in a regional version of a spirit seat (lingwei) composition, clean-shaven and donning a hairstyle uncommon in Han mortuary art. This paper considers these depictions in terms of Han pictorial conventions and argues that they are dual portraits of the deceased in which different attributes of his political, social, and cultural identity are stressed.