Dual Portraits of the Deceased in Yangqiaopan M1, Jingbian, Shaanxi

• Main Author: Leslie Wallace
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts) 2019-06-01
• Series: Asian Studies
• Subjects: Han tomb murals, Han Northern frontier, portraiture, processional scene, spirit seat (lingwei)
• Online Access: https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8311

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.