ARTICLE
26 November 2025

Analysis of the Visual Art Language of Kizil Murals and Application of Digital Illustrations: A Case Study of the Maitreya Bodhisattva’s Preaching in Cave 38

Yang Sun*
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1 School of Humanities and Arts, Xinjiang University of Political Science and Law, Tumushuke 832003, Xinjiang, China
LNE 2025 , 3(10), 26–33; https://doi.org/10.18063/LNE.v3i10.1096
© 2025 by the Author. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Kizil murals are one of the treasures of mural art in China, and also a historical witness to the integration of multi-ethnic culture and art. Their unique artistic language, rich thematic stories, and profound cultural heritage are all worthy of our in-depth exploration and research. This article mainly conducts a study on the visual art language form of the Maitreya Bodhisattva Douliu Tiangong statement on the semi-circular end face above the front wall of the main chamber of Cave 38. It summarizes and explores the theme content, character introduction, composition relationship, brightness relationship, color matching relationship, and experimental application of illustration art around the Kizil murals. By summarizing, generalizing, transforming, and applying the relationships and laws of these artistic languages, we explore and experiment with the ways and possibilities of language transformation between Kizil murals and modern illustration art creation.

Keywords
Kizil murals
Visual art forms
Illustration art
Experimental applications
Funding
1.This article is a research outcome of the 2025 Education Research Project of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The project title is "Research on the Application Path of AIGC in the Teaching of Intangible Cultural Heritage Handicraft Art Courses in Primary and Secondary Schools of the Third Division",(Project No.: BJKY-2025-408). 2.This article is a research outcome of the 2024 General Project of Educational and Teaching Reform Research of Xinjiang University of Political Science and Law. The project name is "Research on the Application and Innovative Path of AIGC Technology in IP Image Design Teaching", ( Project No.: XZJGY-2024-48).
References

[1] Xinjiang Kizil Research Institute, 2024, Research on Kizil Art. Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 4: 4–6.

[2] Ren P, 2015, History of Ancient Chinese Material Culture · Painting · Murals in Grotto Temples (Kizil). Kaiming Publishing House, 1.

[3] Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Management Committee, 1996, Chinese Grottoes: Kizil Grottoes II. Cultural Relics Publishing House, 6: 177–179.

[4] Xinjiang Kizil Research Institute, 2019, Chinese Grotto Art: Kizil. Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing House, 1: 20–22.

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