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Art Q&A > Painting
Flower-and-Bird Paintings
Flowers and birds were favorite subjects in paintings in ancient China, offering a kind of special
aesthetic interest. As an independent school of paintings, flower-and-bird works originated in the
Tang Dynasty (618-907) and matured at the end of the Tang and Five Dynasties period. Many
celebrated painters emerged at the time, with Huang Quan and Xu Xi as the representative
figures among them.
Huang was a court painter of the Five Dynasties and most of his works were of rare flowers
and birds in courts. The depicted birds in his paintings were full-fledged and flowers looked
luxurious under the bush. Sketch of Rare Bird Scroll -- a piece handed down from Huang --
vividly depicts many kinds of birds. Xu lived during the Five Dynasties, too, and was never
involved in politics. Xu did not seek fame or wealth -- he just concentrated on painting. Xu used
thick strokes and ink, drew branches and leaves plainly, and used a slight hint of color so it
would not impair the ink. His works were full of wild interest. Snow Covers Bamboo was one of
Xu's works that was handed down in history. Huang and Xu represented completely different
styles of painting, and people of later generations named them "Luxurious Huang Quan" and
"Quiescent Xu Xi". Both artists later exerted a great influence on the creation of flower-and-bird
Apaintings.
A
pZhao Ji, Emperor Song Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, was fatuous on politics.
aAlthough the destruction of the Northern Song was attributed to him to a great extent, he, p
i nevertheless, made some contributions to the development of painting and art. The emperor a
nwas keen on paintings and collected many important works, then compiled the Xuanhe i
t Painting Guide -- a significant work on the history of painting in ancient China. Under his n
i advocacy, the imperial arts academy was well developed. Many skilled painters gathered there, t
ncreating many excellent works. Emperor Huizong was himself an outstanding painter, who was i
A
gproficient in landscape, figure, flower-and-bird and animal paintings. His flower-and-bird n
ppaintings were most famous for their delicate style and wash-painting characteristics. Lotus g
band Golden Pheasant and Winter Sunset and Wild Bird were his representative works.
a
yi b
n y
tHXu Wei, who lived in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), was an intellectual lost in a world of
i politics. Since his entire life was filled with frustration and poverty, Xu Wei's inner indignation
u Z
awas displayed through his poems and paintings. He excelled in flower-and-bird paintings, using h
n
gconcise strokes. Xu Wei's plain style was quite successful and had a rich connection, stressing a
n
gthe artistic effects of wash painting. He often used the poems that accompanied his paintings to o
bexpress his inner feelings, thus perfecting the paintings. Xu Wei attained great attainments in
ycalligraphy, as well. His poems, handwriting and paintings were unified to make a whole.
Q J
u i
a
XThe literati in ancient China were fond of calyx canthus and bamboo paintings, which, to them,
nwere tasteful and unstrained. Such paintings symbolized literati unconventionality. Although
u
calyx canthus and bamboo were part of flower-and-bird paintings, after the Song and Yuan
Xdynasties, when the number of artists increased by the day, the subjects broke away from
i flower-and-bird painting to become a school of their own. During the Song and Yuan dynasties,
Wen Tong, Yang Wujiu, Li Yan, Wang Mian and others were all painters famous for drawing
calyx canthus and bamboo. Because of the introduction of the Stories of Scholars , Wang
became familiar to every Chinese person. In fact, Wang's achievements in painting were not the
lotus, which was mentioned in the Stories of Scholars , but his calyx canthus and bamboo works.
"Not for the praise of good looks, but for spreading freshness: "From these two lines of a poem,
we can plainly see why the painter chose the calyx canthus as his subject -- to express feeling.
Zheng Banqiao declined the honor as local official but lived by selling paintings in Yangzhou. He
was good at painting orchids, bamboo, calyx canthus and stones. Both his handwriting and
painting had a unique style: "I drew orchid, bamboo and stone to console the working people but
not to seek pleasure," said Zheng, which also suggested that the calyx canthus and bamboo
under his brush contained an exceptional thought state.
Chinese painting
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A hanging scroll painted by Ma Lin in or before 1246. Ink and color on silk, 226.6x110.3 cm.
Loquats and a Mountain Bird, by an anonymous painter of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279); small
album leaf paintings like this were popular amongst the gentry and scholar-officials of the Southern Song.
Painting from the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Animalistic guardian spirits of midnight and morning wearing Chinese robes, Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE)
on ceramic tile
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting
in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as guóhuà (simplified Chinese: 国
画; traditional Chinese: 國畫) or (simplified Chinese: 中国画; traditional Chinese: 中國
畫), meaning "national" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which
became popular in China in the 20th century. Traditional painting involves essentially
the same techniques as calligraphy and is done with a brush dipped in black
ink or coloured pigments; oils are not used. As with calligraphy, the most popular
materials on which paintings are made are paper and silk. The finished work can be
mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or handscrolls. Traditional painting can also
be done on album sheets, walls, lacquerware, folding screens, and other media.
The two main techniques in Chinese painting are:
How did the Chinese style of landscape painting reveal the spiritual beliefs of the
artist?
Landscape painting is traditionally at the top of the hierarchy of Chinese painting styles. ...
The Chinese term for "landscape" is made up of two characters meaning "mountains and
water." It is linked with the philosophy of Daoism, which emphasizes harmony with the natural
world.
The principal forms of Chinese painting are the hanging scroll, album of paintings, fan
surface and long horizontal scroll. Hanging scrolls are both horizontal and vertical,
usually mounted and hung on the wall.
Li Cheng (painter)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Li Cheng
Born 919
Died 967
Nationality Chinese
Known for Painting
Movement Northern Landscape style
Contents
1Life
2Art
3See also
4References
o 4.1Reading
5External links
Life[edit]
He is from Qingzhou (now part of Weifang, Shandong) during the Five Dynasties and Ten
Kingdoms and early Song Dynasty. His ancestral lineage was with the Tang Dynasty imperial
family, the Li (李) family, which had fallen out of power in 907 with the collapse of the Tang
Empire.
Li Cheng learned painting style from Jing Hao and Guan Tong at first but turned to focus on
nature and developing his own style.[1] He was also good at poetry and articles; but he did not pay
much attention to that. He was not interested in working for the government. Many nobles
wanted Li Cheng to work for them, but Li Cheng never accepted. There was a prestigious person
named Sun who always wanted to get a painting from Li Cheng. So he tried to offer Li Cheng a
job in exchange for his painting. However, Li Cheng refused to do so. Sun then paid money to
someone who knew Li Cheng and helped him to steal a painting. After a while, Li Cheng saw his
work hanging on Sun's wall; he was very angry and never contacted with the one who stole his
painting.[2] During his later years, he traveled around and died in Huaiyang County.
Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guan Tong together became known as the "three great rival artists". He
did many landscape paintings with diluted ink, known as "treating ink like gold", which gives the
appearance of being in a foggy dream. At that time, he was considered the best landscape painter
of all time. He was known to have carried on an artistic dialogue with Wu Daoxuan through their
respective paintings. Li Cheng primarily portrayed Shandong area landscapes in his paintings.
Artists of later generations, such as Guo Xi, modeled their teaching on his painting style and
methods.
His works include “Jigger", "Joy in Fishing", "Cold crow", and "Landscape". One extant
painting, "Reading Stele Nest Stone", was a collaboration with Wang Xiao.
Art[edit]
Chinese Figure Painting
The human figure as a subject in Chinese painting appeared well before such later
popular ones as the landscape or birds-and-flowers. The purpose behind the painting of
figures in early times was mostly to serve religious or political aims. Archaeological
discoveries of paintings on silk and on tomb and cave walls so far offer a glimpse at the
development of figure painting from the Spring and Autumn (722-481 BC) to Warring
States (403-221 BC) periods, to the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), and into the Wei
and Jin era (265-420).
After the Han dynasty, the breakdown of the Confucian system was reflected in
painting and painting theory: increasingly, Daoist and Buddhist themes and theoretical
reasons for painting were emphasized. The greatest painter in the Jin dynasty was Gu
Kaizhi ( 顧愷之 , ca.344-406), an amateur painter from a family of distinguished Eastern
Wei dynasty scholar-officials in Nanjing and an eccentric member of a Daoist sect. One
of the most famous of his works (which survives in a Tang dynasty copy in the British
Museum) illustrates a 3rd-century didactic text Nüshizhen (女史箴, “Admonitions of the
Court Instructress”), by Zhang Hua ( 張 華 , ca.232-300). The figures are slender and
fairylike, and the line is fine and flows rhythmically. The roots of this elegant southern
style, which then epitomized the highest Nanjing court standard, can be traced back to
Changsha in the late Zhou (1046–256 BC)–early Han period, and it was later adopted
as court style by the Northern Wei rulers (e.g., at Longmen) when they moved south to
Luoyang in 495. Gu Kaizhi also was noted as a portraitist, and, among Buddhist
subjects, his rendering of the sage Vimalakirti became a model for later painters.
Princess Yongtai
The royal tombs near Xi’an show the emergence of a more liberated tradition in
brushwork that came to the fore in mid- to late 8th-century painting, as it did in the
calligraphy of Zhang Xu (張旭, fl. 8th c.), Yan Zhenqing (顏真卿, 709-785), and other
master writers. The greatest brush master of Tang painting was the 8th-century artist
Wu Daozi ( 吳 道 子 , ca.680-759), who not only enjoyed a career at court but had
sufficient creative energy to execute, according to Tang records, some 300 wall
paintings in the temples of Luoyang and Chang’an (modern Xi’an). His brushwork, in
contrast to that of Yan Liben, was full of such sweeping power that crowds would gather
to watch him as he worked. He painted chiefly in ink, leaving the coloring to his
assistants, and he was famous for the three-dimensional, sculptural effect he achieved
with the ink line alone. Wu Daozi had a profound influence, particularly on figure
painting, in the Tang and Song dynasties. His style may be reflected in some of the 8th-
century caves at Dunhuang, although the meticulous handling of the great paradise
compositions in the caves increasingly came to approximate the high standards of
Chinese court artists and suggests the inspiration of earlier and more conservative
Buddhist painters. This more restrained style can also be seen in the Japanese temple
murals at Hōryū Temple near Nara, executed about 670–710 in the Chinese
“international” manner.
Zhao Cangyun: Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao Entering the Tiantai Mountains
Like other invaders before them, the Mongols supported the Buddhists as a matter
of policy. They were particularly attracted to the esoteric and magical practices of the
Tibetan Lamaists, but they also, like the Liao ( 遼 ) and the Jin ( 金 ), patronized the
orthodox Buddhist sects and the Daoists. Magnificent wall paintings of about 1320 from
the Xinghua Temple (興化寺), a Buddhist temple near Jishan (稷山) in southern Shanxi,
are today in museums in Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Toronto, while still in situ in
Shanxi and recently restored are the frescoes, dated to between 1325 and 1358, in the
Yongle Gong (永樂宮), a temple dedicated to the Daoist deity Lü Dongbin (呂洞賓). The
Yuan also saw a large output of devotional painting, some of it done by genuine Chan
monks such as Yintuoluo (因陀羅), some by professional artists such as Yan Hui (顏輝),
who with his many followers painted both Buddhist and Daoist subjects in the traditional
Southern Song manner.
Some other artists studied in Europe and brought back some understanding of the
essential contemporary European traditions and movements. Lin Fengmian ( 林 風 眠 ,
1900-1991), who became director of the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 1928,
was inspired by the experiments in color and pattern of Henri Matisse and the Fauves.
Lin advocated a synthesis combining Western techniques and Chinese expressiveness
and left a lasting mark on the modern Chinese use of the brush. Another major artist, Xu
Beihong (徐悲鴻, 1895-1953), head of the National Central University’s art department
in Nanjing, eschewed European Modernist movements in favor of more conservative
Parisian academic styles. He developed his facility in drawing and oils, later learning to
imitate pencil and chalk with the Chinese brush. The monumental figure paintings he
created would serve as a basis for Socialist Realist painters after the communist
revolution of 1949.
Bamboo painting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bamboo in snow from the 'Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting and Calligraphy', 1633.
Appreciation[edit]
From the days of their common origin, Chinese painting and Chinese writing have been
allied arts. They use the same equipment and share aims, techniques, and standards.
Ever since the beginning, bamboo has been written and also been painted in the same
manner, in other words, a work depicting bamboo is both a painting and a piece of
calligraphy. There are so-called “bamboo painters” who all their lives paint only bamboo.
The bamboo is strong, upright, and dependable. He may bend with the wind, the storm
and the rain, but he never breaks. He is a true gentleman of courage and endurance (Ju
1989).
The first principle of bamboo composition is, the four parts of the plant should be
considered in the following order: stem, knot, branches and leaves. If the basic rule is
not followed, time and effort will be wasted and the picture will never be completed.”
This is the beginning of the early Book of Bamboo, a part of the Mustard Seed Garden
manual of painting which was prepared and published by Chinese master in the year
1701 A.D. No bamboo painting is a photographic copy of some bamboo at some
particular place, seen from a particular angle; instead it is a suggestion of the true
essence of the bamboo, an expression of the qualities of a true Chinese gentleman,
whom the bamboo symbolizes (Ju 1989).
The bamboo plant came under close observation by many East Asians because of its
persistence and vegetative productivity. The plant was especially appreciated by men
and women educated in the tradition of Confucius. It came to be seen as an exemplar
of moral force, and appreciating the bamboo was seen as an act of self-cultivation. It
was said of the ink bamboo painter Wen Tong that "there are whole bamboos in his
heart" (胸有成竹).
Bamboo is not exclusive to the Four Noble Kind group. It also belongs to a distinct
group where it openly fraternizes with pine trees and plum blossoms. Collectively, they
are called the Three Friends of Winter because bamboo and pine do not wither on
winter days and the plum blossoms starts blooming during the cold season.
Bamboo also exhibits a certain visual appeal on educated people because
its silhouette cast by either the sun or moon on the paper windows of a Chinese house
produced a poetic effect. Its straight stalk was the symbol of the sage, in that adversity
could always bend it but it could never break it. The inner region of the bamboo stalk
symbolizes the void that must be established in one's mind before thinking of useful
ideas. To put it in simpler terms, one should always have clarity of mind when dealing
with things to avoid chaos and to achieve desired results.
On the technical area, one needed to be an expert with the brush in order to execute
perfectly cylindrical, smooth and hard internodes, and thin, translucid, nervous leaves
placed in various perspectives. One should also have a keen talent in identifying where
to place dark tones and light tones in the painting.
These characteristics are enough to validate that bamboo is a complete subject
because it portrays lasting values one needed to get on with life and it commands a
truly talented painter to create varying tones that never repeat.
Part of Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, an imaginary tour through Xiao-xiang by Li Shi (李氏); 12th-century; scroll, ink
on paper; 30 × 400 cm; Tokyo National Museum
Gong-bi (工筆), meaning "meticulous", uses highly detailed brushstrokes that delimits details
very precisely. It is often highly coloured and usually depicts figural or narrative subjects. It is
often practised by artists working for the royal court or in independent workshops. Bird-and-
flower paintings were often in this style.
Ink and wash painting, in Chinese Shui-mo or (水墨[1]) also loosely termed watercolour or brush
painting, and also known as "literati painting", as it was one of the "Four Arts" of the
Chinese Scholar-official class.[2] In theory this was an art practised by gentlemen, a distinction
that begins to be made in writings on art from the Song dynasty, though in fact the careers of
leading exponents could benefit considerably.[3] This style is also referred to as "xie yi" (寫意) or
freehand style.
Artists from the Han (202 BC) to the Tang (618–906) dynasties mainly painted the human figure.
Much of what is known of early Chinese figure painting comes from burial sites, where paintings
were preserved on silk banners, lacquered objects, and tomb walls. Many early tomb paintings were
meant to protect the dead or help their souls get to paradise. Others illustrated the teachings of the
Chinese philosopher Confucius, or showed scenes of daily life. Most Chinese portraits showed a
formal full-length frontal view, and were used in the family in ancestor veneration. Imperial portraits
were more flexible, but were generally not seen outside the court, and portraiture formed no part of
Imperial propaganda, as in other cultures.
Many critics consider landscape to be the highest form of Chinese painting. The time from the Five
Dynasties period to the Northern Song period (907–1127) is known as the "Great age of Chinese
landscape". In the north, artists such as Jing Hao, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guo Xi painted pictures
of towering mountains, using strong black lines, ink wash, and sharp, dotted brushstrokes to suggest
rough rocks. In the south, Dong Yuan, Juran, and other artists painted the rolling hills and rivers of
their native countryside in peaceful scenes done with softer, rubbed brushwork. These two kinds of
scenes and techniques became the classical styles of Chinese landscape painting.
Without a doubt Japan's most recognizable landmark, majestic Mount Fuji (Fuji-
san) is also the country's highest mountain peak. Towering 3,776 meters over an
otherwise largely flat landscape to the south and east, this majestic and fabled
mountain is tall enough to be seen from Tokyo, more than 100 kilometers away.
Mount Fuji has for centuries been celebrated in art and literature and is now
considered so important an icon that UNESCO recognized its world cultural
significance in 2013. Part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, Mount Fuji is
climbed by more than a million people each summer as an act of pilgrimage,
which culminates in watching the sunrise from its summit.
While some still choose to begin their climb from the base, the majority of
climbers now start from above the halfway mark, at the 5th Station, resulting in a
more manageable six-or-so-hour ascent. Those who do attempt the complete
climb are advised to depart in the afternoon, breaking up the climb with an
overnight stop at one of the "Mountain Huts" designed for this very purpose. An
early start the next day gets you to the top for the sunrise.
Of course, for many, simply viewing the mountain from the distance, or from the
comfort of a speeding train, is enough to say "been there, done that."