Throughout the long history of human art, clay is not only the foundation for nurturing life but also a unique medium for preserving the memory of civilization. From the clay tablets with cuneiform script in Mesopotamia to the colorful murals in the Dunhuang Grottoes, from the reliefs in ancient Egyptian temples to the wet murals during the Renaissance, the combination of clay and mineral pigments transcends time and space, telling the eternal pursuit of beauty by humanity. From clay tablet paintings to murals, these two seemingly different artistic forms actually share profound cultural genes and technical veins. This article will focus on the essence and production techniques of clay tablet paintings, trace the historical trajectory of murals, and reveal the hidden connections in materials, functions, and symbolic meanings between the two, leading readers to explore the humanistic wisdom in clay art.
What are Clay Tablet Paintings? - An Analysis of Materials and Techniques
1.Definition and Historical Origin of Clay Tablet Painting.
Clay tablet art is flat artworks created using clay as the base, through methods such as carving, painting, or pressing. Their history can be traced back to the 3500 BC Mesopotamian civilization, where Sumerians used reed pens to carve wedge-shaped characters and patterns on wet clay tablets, recording religious rituals, legal codes, and epics (such as the Epic of Gilgamesh). Since then, clay tablet art has developed in ancient Egypt, Persia, and the Western Regions of China, becoming the "text and image carriers" of early civilizations.
2. Production Process of Clay Tablet Paintings
The creation of clay tablet paintings follows a strict traditional technique:
Selecting clay and preparing materials: Selecting fine, strong clay, removing impurities, and adding water to knead, adding straw, sand, etc. to increase toughness and prevent cracking.
Shaping and drying: Pressing the clay slurry into wooden molds or shaping it by hand into flat plates, with a thickness of typically 2-5 cm, and placing them in a cool place to slowly dry to avoid deformation.
Carving and Painting: Carving method: Using bone needles, wooden sticks, etc. to carve lines on the not yet fully dried clay plate to form recessed patterns (such as the war reliefs of the Assyrian Empire).
Painting method: After the clay plate is completely dry, using mineral pigments (ochre, malachite, cinnabar) mixed with animal glue to draw patterns (such as the Tang Dynasty Buddhist clay tablet paintings unearthed in Xinjiang).
Firing and Fixing Color: Some clay plates need to be hardened by low-temperature firing (600-800°C), while painted works need to be coated with resin or wax to protect the color.
Technical Characteristics: The durability of clay tablet paintings depends on the clay composition and firing process. Unfired clay plates are prone to damage due to moisture, while fired works can be preserved for thousands of years, such as the clay tablet painting of the Ur Military Flag in the British Museum.
The Historical Trajectory of Murals - Epic Histories on Walls
1.Origin and Early Forms of Murals
Mural art is a form of painting art on the walls of buildings. Its rudimentary form can be traced back to the cave paintings of the Paleolithic Age (such as the Bison Painting in the Lascaux Cave in France). As human settlements and architectural technology developed, murals gradually shifted from natural rock walls to artificial walls:
Ancient Egypt: Temple and tomb murals depicted deities, pharaohs, and afterlife scenes, using a stylized style of "side face, front shoulder" and pigments mainly composed of natural minerals (such as lapis lazuli blue, malachite green).
Ancient Greece and Rome: The Fresco in the Pompeii ruins used lime mud as the base and were painted while wet, with colors permanently fused with the wall, covering themes such as mythology, daily life, and landscapes.
Eastern Traditions: The murals in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in China integrated Indian Gandhara art and Central Plains styles, using the "ground layer" technique (mud mixed with wheat straw applied to the stone wall) to create flying apsaras and Buddhist scene paintings at the peak of Buddhist art.
2. Technological Innovations of Murals
Fresco: During the Renaissance, masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo pushed the techniques to the extreme, requiring painters to complete their creations quickly while the lime mud was still wet, with pigments permanently fixed through carbonation reactions.
Secco: Painted on dry walls using adhesive media (egg tempera, casein) for ease of modification but with poorer durability, often used for detail repairs.
Modern Murals: Utilizing acrylic paints, ceramic glazes, and even digital projection technology, they break through the limitations of traditional materials (such as Diego Rivera's social-themed creations by Mexican muralists)
Deep Connections between Clay Plate Paintings and Murals
1.Material Homology: The Genetic Element of Earth
Whether it is the clay base in clay plate paintings or the ground layer in murals (such as the clay-moss mixture in Dunhuang murals), both are centered around clay as the core material. This choice stems from the plasticity, accessibility, and symbolic significance of clay - in early civilizations, clay was often regarded as a metaphor for life and regeneration (such as God creating man from clay in the Bible, and the Chinese myth of Nuwa molding man from earth).
2. Technical Inheritance: From Planar to Three-Dimensional Art Language
Transition from relief to sculpture: The Assyrian Empire's clay plate relief (such as "The Hunting of Lions") directly influenced the wall relief murals of Greece and Rome, both of which express spatial perception through the depth of layers.
Sharing of pigment techniques: Both clay plate paintings and murals rely on natural mineral pigments and need to solve the problem of pigment bonding with the base. The "plaster base + glue pigment" technique invented by the ancient Egyptians was used not only for clay plates but also in tomb murals.
3. Superimposition of Function and Symbolism
Religious and Power Narratives: Sumerian clay plate paintings record sacrificial ceremonies, while Egyptian tomb murals depict the Book of the Dead for the deceased; both serve to visualize religious beliefs and ruling authority.
Cultural Communication Medium: Buddhist clay plate paintings (such as those in the Kizil Grottoes in Xinjiang) and Dunhuang murals together constitute the artistic exchange network of the Silk Road, and the clay plate, as a portable medium, may have inspired larger-scale wall creations.
4. Reinterpretation of Modern Art
Contemporary artists expand the boundaries of expression by integrating the two forms:
Iraqi artist Mohammed Ghani incorporated Sumerian cuneiform clay plate elements into street murals, reflecting on the rupture and rebirth of cultural heritage.
Ceramic artists created "hanging clay plate paintings" to present the texture of relief through mural composition, blurring the boundaries between planar and three-dimensional, traditional and contemporary.
Conclusion
The clay tablet paintings and murals, these twin flowers rooted in the soil, with different scales and forms, jointly weave the visual epic of human civilization. From the first incision on the moist clay to the colorful world on the grand walls, they are not only the history of technological evolution but also the unremitting efforts of humanity to transcend the limitations of time and space and preserve the spiritual spark. In the current digital wave, revisiting the connection between these two ancient art forms might provide us with a simple answer about "eternity": True art's immortality does not lie in the solidity of the material, but in its constant connection with the land, life, and collective memory.
