The heavenly court: a study on the Iconopraxis of Daoist temple painting

Abstract

This study investigates four complete sets of Daoist wall paintings, termed Heavenly Court paintings (chaoyuan tu) and depicting a court audience of Daoist deities in heaven, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the context of related Daoist ritual practices, mural production, and personalisations. After outlining the history and development of Heavenly Court painting in China, it explains the conceptual framework on which painters based their design, how this design was built up, and why patrons modified some elements in the design thus accounting for differences between the wall paintings