Portrait brick of dragon

[Brick for the portrait of the dragon of the figure]

Brick for the portrait of the dragon of the figure, Western Han Dynasty, 82.5 cm high and 103 cm wide

The manufacturing method of hollow brick is to first make a wooden mold according to the size of the brick, and the wooden mold is mostly grooved; The bottom and both sides of the groove are pressed and formed with the mixed soil, and the two bricks meet to form a hollow. When the bricks are half-dried in the shade, they are printed with various patterns, and then repaired by hand, and fired at low temperature. This portrait brick is triangular and hollow. On one side of the picture, a dragon soars in the air, people ride on the dragon, and on the other side, there is only one dragon. The picture is simple and smooth, elegant and free, which is a typical portrayal of the artistic spirit of the Han Dynasty. The image is similar to the silk painting of the Han Tomb in Mawangdui, both of which are dragon and human images, and should be linked with the concept of ascension. In the view of the ancestors, people ascended to heaven and became immortals through the medium of dragons. Triangle portrait bricks are generally used for the upper part of the tomb door or the upper part of the rear chamber of the pointed arch tomb chamber, and also have the meaning of rising upward from the perspective of orientation. This brick was unearthed in Luoyang, Henan Province