Note: This is a painting produced in the last fifty years by an artist who is presumably still alive. I do not have copyright in any way over this artist’s work. I’m reproducing it here because (a) these images are of ethnographic interest, (b) I’d hope that shining more light on contemporary mural and scroll painters will ultimately be good for their trade, and (c) frankly, these people seem unlikely to sue me. To that last point: It’s possible to commission religious scrolls in China today. If you’re interested, email me and I’d be happy to give you the contact information of several painters we met.
Structure Type: Urban temple 城鎮廟宇.
Location: Hebei Province, Wanquan County, Ximalin Town 河北省萬全縣西馬林鎮. The temple is located on an imposing tower which looks south down the main axial road of the walled town.
Period: 2007.
Artist: Guo Jicheng 郭繼成. There’s a little graffito on the wall that reads, 2007年十月十號／洗中郭繼成畫 “September 10th, 2007 – Painted by Guo Jicheng of Xi[malin] Middle [School][?].”
Mural Contents: Although the temple is known as a Tower of the Jade Emperor, the only murals are on the lower floor, where there is a shrine to the Three Officials 三官. The drawings are set behind the three statues, and represent the ornate backs of the thrones of the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water. To either side of the central Official of Heaven, life-size attendants peak through doorways, suggesting a mysterious interior behind the scaenae frons of the altar wall.
Other Notes: The theme of “peaking” through doors or around screens is a very old one in Chinese religious art, and the symbols on the panels of the painted thrones are quite traditional ones (the elephants bearing cintāmaṇi jewels). Thus I wonder whether “Guo Jicheng of Ximalin Middle School” in fact only re-colored a pre-Revolution mural originally on the wall; unfortunately I didn’t think to hunt this person down at the time and ask him.
Full Gallery
