Forum: Successful Holding of the Lecture on “Strong Art: Appreciation and Research of Han Dynasty Portrait Art”

(Reported by Liu Xiaoyu; photo by Gao Hui) At 16:30 on October 21, 2023, the 41st Forum with the theme of “Strong Art: Appreciation and Research of Han Dynasty Portrait Art” was held in Conference Room 1209 of the School of Arts and Communication. The lecture was hosted by He Qingjun, dean of the School of Arts and Communication, and the speaker was Prof. Zhu Hu, director of the Editorial Department of Research of Chinese Fine Arts, professor of the School of Fine Arts of East China Normal University, and Shanghai Shuguang Scholar.

Before the lecture, He Qingjun, dean of the School of Arts and Communication, briefly introduced the speaker, Prof. Zhu Hu: he has done a lot of research in the field of art archaeology and art market, and is now the deputy director of the Institute of Art History and Theory, and he is also an external reviewer for journals such as Chinese Numismatics, Palace Museum Journal, and Image Historical Studies.

Firstly, Prof. Zhu Hu emphasized that art has a strong vitality, and the art created by China’s over 5000 years of history has formed our unique national spirit standing in the east of the world, and he hoped to bring the students a new understanding and interpretation through the study of Han Dynasty portrait stone art. This lecture mainly focused on four parts: 1. The definition and analysis of Han Dynasty portrait art; 2. The carrier of Han Dynasty stone portrait; 3. The regional distribution of Han Dynasty stone portrait; 4.Tthe main content of Han Dynasty stone portrait.

Secondly, Prof. Zhu Hu focused on the fact that Han pictorial stones have both the function of building materials and the function of conveying pictorial information. Furthermore, the Han stone portraits in different regions of China have highly representative characteristics, such as the Nanyang stone portraits with a strong romantic atmosphere, stone portraits in the southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu regions with rich forms, and Shanxi area with Paper Cuttings style by the skillful use of colorful painted stone portraits

Thirdly, based on the cultural, religious and customary background of the Han Dynasty, Prof. Zhu Hu categorized the contents of Han portraits into four main categories: gods and devils, historical stories, secular life, and social trends. By analyzing various types of representative Han pictorial stone works with examples, he vividly explained to us that the Han people used this type of art to convey the value logic they wanted to show to the world.

Finally, Dean He Qingjun summarized the lecture content and emphasized that Han Dynasty stone portraits were a visual representation of concepts, which not only played a crucial role in artistic attainments but also recorded the changes in different concepts before and after the Han Dynasty. After listening to the lecture, students should pay attention to not only looking at the problem from a micro perspective, but also analyzing and researching from a macro and overall perspective in future research projects, to achieve the goal of being broad and meticulous. He also pointed out that cultural confidence and cultural construction are the current top priorities, and students are the main force of cultural construction. We should pay attention to cultural cultivation, knowledge reserves, and methods. The lecture was wonderful and ended successfully with warm applause, and the students gained a lot and benefited greatly.