This analysis explores the aesthetic of ruins and textures in Dunhuang murals, suggesting their unique beauty implies impermanence.
The Mogao Caves in Dunhuang are the world's largest and richest extant Buddhist art site, with relics from thousands of years of overlapping and merging civilizations. Dunhuang murals are a fading, disappearing work of art. This paper analyzes the aesthetic characteristics of Dunhuang murals from four aspects: composition, style, lines, and colors. The reasons for the formation of the Dunhuang mural texture are analyzed through the mottled outlines and faded traces on Dunhuang murals. The erosion of this ancient artwork by nature and humans has produced a delicate beauty similar to the beauty of ruins. This special aesthetic quality has been discussed by Ginsberg (2004), that is, gradual erosion produces new unity and artistic form. The passage of time has endowed Dunhuang murals with three characteristics: the beauty of traces, the beauty of harmony, and the beauty of mistiness. These qualities are also symbols and metaphors for the state of impermanence. The author explores the aesthetic qualities of the texture of Dunhuang murals, especially the peeling and discoloration.
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Liu et al. (2025) studied this question.