A Brief Analysis of the Composition and Connotation of the Skeletons' Illusory Performance

Haoyu Wu

2025

Abstract

The Skeletons' Illusory Performance, is a genre painting by court painter Li Song of Southern Song Dynasty. Since this painting contains the image of skull, which is not a common figure in traditional Chinese paintings, scholars have studied this painting for hundreds of years since its creation, but there is no consensus on why Li Song painted such a image in this painting. This study will utilize interdisciplinary research approaches of Historical-contextual Analysis, Formal Analysis Method and Iconographic Analysis Method to analyze multiple areas of history, art history and religions, including the painting's inscriptions, the background of the creation period, Buddhist and Taoist thoughts, etc., to explores the composition and connotation of the Skeletons' Illusory Performance. The painting of Skeletons' Illusory Performance is not a simple satire of reality, but a reflection of painter Li Song's view of life and death influenced by Buddhism and Taoism.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Wu H. (2025). A Brief Analysis of the Composition and Connotation of the Skeletons' Illusory Performance. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development - Volume 1: IESD; ISBN 978-989-758-779-5, SciTePress, pages 259-265. DOI: 10.5220/0013982300004912

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iesd25,
author={Haoyu Wu},
title={A Brief Analysis of the Composition and Connotation of the Skeletons' Illusory Performance},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development - Volume 1: IESD},
year={2025},
pages={259-265},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013982300004912},
isbn={978-989-758-779-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development - Volume 1: IESD
TI - A Brief Analysis of the Composition and Connotation of the Skeletons' Illusory Performance
SN - 978-989-758-779-5
AU - Wu H.
PY - 2025
SP - 259
EP - 265
DO - 10.5220/0013982300004912
PB - SciTePress