The origins of traditional Chinese painting go back to the distant history of China. Generally speaking, works dating from before the T’ang dynasty (AD 618-907) are mainly line drawings of people engaged in various activities; this was the “golden age” of human figure drawing. In the middle of the T’ang dynasty, paintings of landscapes and flowers and birds began to gain prominence. Mountain, forest, field and garden paintings have the ability to transport us away from the woes of the material world into a peaceful and carefree realm. Because of this, landscape paintings have always been highly appreciated by China’s literati and officials. The flowers, grass. trees. the stones, and the birds and other animals depicted in the lively and energetic flower and bird paintings are also widely admired. Thus, landscape and flower and bird types of painting, along with earlier human figure painting, comprised the three main categories of traditional Chinese painting.
The ruling and elite classes of the T’ang and Sung dynasties (AD 960-1279) were the main proponents of Chinese painting. The creative goal behind the artistic works produced in this period was more serious and had political and educational significance; in style, the works tended to be elaborate and ornate. The Sung dynasty court established a fairly well systematized painting academy. Emperor Sung Hui Tsung, a lover of fine arts and painting, and an accomplished artist in his own right, bestowed special patronage on the painters of this academy and sponsored the training of up-and-coming painters. The painting academy reached the zenith of its activity in this period.
However, due to gradual social, economic, and cultural changes, more and more men of letters began to devote themselves to painting, and literature came to exert more and more influence on painting. By the time of the famous poet Sung Su Shih, the school of literary painting had already emerged. During the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368 AD), there was no longer a formal painting academy organization within the imperial palace, so the style of court painting declined. At this point, the literary school of painting entered the mainstream, and leadership in Chinese painting circles fell into the hands of literate painters.
Literati often prefer to paint according to their own fantasy and without restrictions, advocating a fresh, free, discreet and elegant style. Subjects they like include mountains and rocks, clouds and water, flowers and trees, the “four gentlemen” (plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums), etc. Because natural objects such as these are less demanding subjects to paint than the human figure, the painter is better able to exploit the potential of brush and ink for free expression.
Whether Chinese painting is “realistic” is the subject of frequent debate. Some may feel unrealistic, but that answer only tells part of the story. Realism in Chinese painting reached its climax in the painting of the T’ang and Sung dynasties. However, the type of “realism” sought in Chinese painting is not an objective reflection of the existence of an object perceived through the sense of sight, but rather an expression of a subjective type of recognition or perception.
For example, no great effort is made to depict the shadows cast by a particular type of lighting at a particular place and time on the clothing of people depicted in Sung Che K’an T’u painting, and by This reason the painting does not have a clear three-dimensional effect. After the painter established the lines on the paper, he used watercolor wash techniques to achieve a chiaroscuro effect of light and dark, representing the forces of “yin” and “yang”, to express his understanding of eternal nature. par excellence of its subject. A square planter painted according to the objective principles of perspective should, in theory, appear longer at the front and shorter at the back, reflecting the perceived diminution in the relative size of more distant objects. But the front and back edges of a real planter are the same length, and this knowledge of the physical world is incorporated into the image that the painter of Che K’an T’u created: the planter is represented as a flat surface with slides that they are of equal length.
In another work, called “Splash-ink Immortal,” by the Sung dynasty artist Liang K’ai, the artist wanted to portray not just any man in the street, but a recluse from another world, and thus would have been inappropriate to use an ordinary human being as a model. The very unusual, even bizarre, forms of this painting, with its bold and unrestrained brushstrokes, provide the right background to highlight the characteristics of this most extraordinary individual. This painting is representative of the “freehand brushwork” school of traditional Chinese painting.
The fundamental component of Chinese painting is the line, as it is in Chinese calligraphy. Due to this common feature, these two arts have had, since very remote times, a close reciprocal relationship. At the time when literary painting became popular in the Yuan dynasty, the men of letters who painted made an even more conscious effort to reaffirm the link with Chinese calligraphy, and actively led a trend to merge calligraphy, and actively led a trend to merge calligraphy and picture. And the close relationship between poetry and painting was formed under the strong influence of literature on painting. Academic and literary statesmen led the fusion of poetry and painting, and this eventually spread to the academy of painting. The Sung Empror Hui Tsung is known to have used poetry to test painters on their ability to express with ink and paper the enchanted world created in written verse.
Although traditional Chinese painting still occupies an important place in the lives of modern Chinese, many painters now wish to express their experience of the new times. By combining new modes of expression with traditional Chinese painting techniques, they are opening up a vast new world of artistic expression.
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