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敦煌乐舞 Buddhist Dancers: "Joyful Dance" 乐舞 Series by Zhiwei Tu 涂志伟


Music: Xian

This series of oil paintings by the grand master Zhiwei Tu 涂志伟 depicted the many scantily clad Chinese dancers during the height of Buddhist influence in Tang China. The artstyle is inspired by the Dunhuang depictions of dancers and celestial spirits called apsaras.















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Comments

Der said…
Nice paintings, but I thought the T'ang standard for beauty was for more, what we moderns would think, 'over weight' women?
September 18, 2018 at 12:15 PM
Dragon's Armory said…
The Tang did indeed value fleshy and Rubeunesque beauty, but just like the modern world, just because its an ideal of beauty does not mean everyone possessed it or were such. If you look at contemporary cave paintings from Dunhuang a lot of dancers are slightly plump but still athletic and lithe enough to move with fantastic poses like Hindu dancers. Here are some examples. They are also very androgynous in most of the Tang paintings, those with sashes or instruments discreetly covering the bosoms are usually a safe bet to be women.

https://www.askideas.com/media/45/Architecture-Inside-The-Mogao-Caves-China.jpg
https://www.askideas.com/media/45/Painting-On-The-Walls-Inside-The-Mogao-Caves-Dunhuang.jpg

Also in western China, there are quite a number of women depicted by Tarim natives of earlier periods that featured lithe dancing women, looking almost identical from dancers from Hindu caves in Ajanta. Take a look at the dancers of the Kizil Caves

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Dance_of_Chandraprabha%2C_Kizil_Caves.jpg

September 18, 2018 at 6:14 PM
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