Art of China:
A vast majority of the art for religious purposes:
Buddhism:
Art pieces were often made to facilitate Buddhist meditation, to encourage the mind to
focus on the proper life and the goal of enlightenment.
Objects:
Four Buddhist statues
Mandalas were the sacred diagrams of the universe and were considered, if drawn in
colored sand, to provide energy to all around them. Both of these are made of cloth.
Mandala of Jnanadakini ,late 14th century
Mandala of Hevajra, 1400-1600
Lacquerware: wood coated with lacquer and then carved, sometimes inlaid with other
materials, like jewels and shells
Seven-lobed platter with scene of children at play, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), 14th century
Sutra box, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403–1424)
Incense container, Koryô dynasty (918–1392), 10th–12th century
Along with carved lacquerware, the Chinese did incredible relief carvings on their
buildings and on small objects, like this:
Medallion, Ming dynasty, late 16th–early 17th century
During the Ming Dynasty, two particular types of porcelain styles became very well-known and
valued throughout the world—had been doing porcelain for centuries.
Stem Cup, China, Ming dynasty, Xuande period (1426–1435)
Jar, Ming dynasty, Xuande mark and period (1426–1435)
Guanyin. White porcelain (blanc-de-chine). Fujian Dehua ware.,Early Qing Period
Another popular export was cloisonné, which is a complicated process of applying and
firing paint onto a metal surface overlaid with raised metal wires laid in shapes.
Dish with scalloped rim, Ming dynasty, early 15th century
Paintings and Drawings:
Most important thing to know: Calligraphy, painting and poetry are the three highest arts
in Chinese culture, with Calligraphy being the most important. The way the Chinese
characters are drawn is quite proscribed, yet there is a lot of room for stylistic variation.
Both words and feeling can be conveyed with Chinese characters, quite apart from their
literal meaning.
Su Shi (Red Cliff) (1037-1101)
Yu He (1300s)
Tang Yin (1470-1523)
Wang Duo (1592-1652)
Painting uses the same tools as calligraphy—bush, ink, silk or paper and sometimes a
little color pigment. Often Chinese paintings also have calligraphy (and poetry) on them.
Much Chinese work is what we would consider somewhat colorless or with only a small
dash of color here and there, but this is for several reasons. One, painting is an extension
of calligraphy, which is done with ink without extra pigment. Two, painting was not
meant to literally represent the world, but to capture the essence of the world and, more
importantly, of a thought. Three, skill at handling the brush and creating the painting was
more important than the technical expertise in creating an image. A great artist can use
the ink and brush to create a variety of tones with the same color, and suggest colors
through the uses of those tones.
Bamboo in Wind, Ming dynasty, ca. 1460, Xia Chang (1388–1470)
Scholar by a Waterfall, Southern Song dynasty, Ma Yuan (Chinese, active ca. 1190—1225)
Ma Yuan was one of the painters of the past that were looked to by painters in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties as masters, to be emulated. All had their particular strengths:
Painters in the Song Dynasty, like Ma Yuan, were heirs to already strong painting traditions.
Earlier painters had developed the vast landscape paintings as a way to express Taoist
philosophy (harmony of man and nature, with nature much more grand than humble man). Also,
by the later 1000s, artists had developed a strong theory of art based on Confucian philosophy.
The painting was considered a reflection of the personality of the artist and of the inspired
moment in time when the painting was conceived and executed. A difference was made between
professional artists, who worked in the royal centers and painted painstakingly, and the “amateur
gentleman” artist who only painted when the spirit moved him.
Summer Mountains, Attributed to Qu Ding (active ca. 1023–ca. 1056)
(plus three close-ups)
Wooded Mountains at Dusk (detail), Qing dynasty, Kuncan (1612–1673)
Many of these grand landscapes were on wall hangings, or on scrolls, which were meant to be
viewed on a few inches at a time, and unrolled slowly as if they were a story.
Also, another innovation was to have paintings that were collaborations, where several artists
worked on the painting and/or added colophons (comments). These comments could also be
added in later centuries by art appreciators!
Old Tree, Bamboo and Rock, Gu An, Zhang Shen and Ni Zan
Plum and Bamboo, Wu Zhen (1280-1354)
Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden, Ming dynasty, After Xie Huan (ca. 1370–ca. 1450)
(two views)
One of the old painters from the Song Dynasty created beautiful and simple paintings of nature
and people.
Persimmons, Song Dynasty, Mu Chi, (1210-1275)
Mother Monkey and Child
Wild Goose
Tiger
Priest Chien-tzu playing with a shrimp
From the Yuan Dynasty, came six major painters with six different styles. Professional
painters of later times had to be able to paint in these different ways.
Gao Kegong (misty rain-drenched landscapes)
Evening Clouds on Autumn Mountains, Yuan Dynasty, Gao Kegong
Zhao Mengfu (spare calligraphy)
Twin Pines, Level Distance, Yuan dynasty, Zhao Mengfu (Chinese, 1254–1322)
Horse and Groom in the Wind
Weng Meng (rich textures, “dragon veins”)
The Simple Retreat, Yuan dynasty, Wang Meng (Chinese, ca. 1308–1385)
Dwelling in Seclusion in the Summer Mountains
Wu Zhen (melancholy landscapes)
Fisherman, Yuan dynasty, Wu Zhen (Chinese, 1280–1354)
Old Tree, Bamboo, Rock
Huang Gongwang (writing a painting, with areas of blankness and areas of detail)
Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, Yuan Dynasty, 1269-1354
And detail)
Ni Zan (dry brushwork with dark dots for emphasis)
Landscape, Yuan Dynasty, Ni Zan (1306-1374)
The Pure Recluse of Bamboo Creek
Woods and Valleys of Mount Yu (note the idea of perspective is NOT like a window
but allows you to have different perspective points of view)
Western paintings, like photographs, tend to present images of landscapes from
a fixed point of view with a mathematically constructed illusion of recession, or
perspective, which makes space appear to recede toward a single "vanishing
point." Chinese landscape paintings use a moving perspective based on the
notion of three distances (near, middle, and far) which allows the eye to move
between various pictorial elements without being limited to one fixed, static point
of view. Thus, the viewer is encouraged to ramble through the landscape image.
Ni Zan, using abstract brushstrokes to suggest three-dimensional forms, exploits
the tension between surface pattern and the illusion of recession to animate his
composition. In this painting, where the bottom section acts as the foreground
while the top acts as the background, a series of diagonal forms draws the
viewer's focus upward across the picture surface as well as deeper into the
represented space.
At the bottom of this scroll, the foreground contains textural details of the side
and top of the rocky shoreline, while the trees are presented from a level, or
frontal, perspective. The water (the unpainted paper surface) and the less
detailed, smaller-scale rocks and trees in the middle ground suggest receding
space. The large mountain in the upper section of the scroll is shown as if the
viewer were looking up at it. The smaller, pale hills to its right convey the massive
size of this mountain and create a sense of deeper distance within the painting.
Other painters, those hired by the court, focused on small pieces of nature, likes birds and
flowers. Some examples:
Anonymous Southern Song artist, Loquats and Mountain Bird
Anonymous (Song), Duckling
Ma Lin, Layers on Layers of Icy Silk
Qian Xuan (ca. 1235- after 1301), Autumn Melon
Wang Qian (Yuan), Peony
The Ming Dynasty brought out several great artists also.
Dai Jin
Breaking Waves, Ming, Dai Jin, 1388-1462
Tang Yin
Standing Figure of a Woman, Ming, Tang Yin 1470-1523
Shen Zhou
Seeking a Line of Poetry by a Spring Stream, Ming, Shen Zhou, 1427-1509
Studio in Bamboo Grove
Dong Qichang
Poetic Feeling at Qixia, Ming, Dong Qichang, 1555-1636
Dong Qichang established a strong theory of art that influenced his contemporaries and
many who came after for a long time. It was based on the study of the old masters.
Emphasizing the distinction between art and nature, Dong maintained: "If one considers the
wonders of nature, then painting cannot rival landscape. But if one considers the wonders of
brushwork, then landscape cannot equal painting."
Qing dynasty brought changes. But many artists continued in the path of the past, as set
by Dong Qichang. An example
Fan Qi, 1616 - c. 1695, Qing
Album of Landscapes, Flowers and Birds
Landscapes Painted for Yuweng
The two greatest artists were exiles from the court when it was conquered by the Manchu.
They had princely blood but were forced to live lives of deceit in order to survive.
Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) 1626-1705
Fish and Rocks
Landscape
Shitao (Zhu Ruoji) 1642-1707
Peach Blossom Spring
Cliff-Bordered Moon
Orchids, Bamboo and Rock
Returning Home
Influence of the West:
Chinese court painters soon mastered the rudiments of Western linear perspective and
chiaroscuro modeling, creating a new, hybrid form of painting that combined Western-style
realism with traditional brushwork.
A key figure in establishing this new court aesthetic was the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione
(1688–1766), who lived in China from 1716 until his death in 1766 and who adopted the Chinese
name Lang Shining. A master of vividly naturalistic draftsmanship and large-scale compositions,
Castiglione worked with Chinese assistants to create a synthesis of European methods and
traditional Chinese media and formats.
Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) (Italian, 1688–1766)
One Hundred Horses (detail), datable to 1728
Portrait of the Imperial Bodyguard Zhanyinbao, Qing dynasty, dated 1760, Unidentified Artist