History 沿革 ( yán gé ) Six dynasties ( 222-589 C.E./A.D.)

Traditional Chinese painting 传统中文绘画 (chuáng tǒng zhōng wén huì huà) by Tosi Marila ( 童丽那 Tóng Lìnà)

History 沿革 (yán gé)• Six dynasties (222-589 C.E./A.D.)• Tang dynasty (618-907) 唐代 (Táng dài)• Five dynasties (907-960) • Song dynasty (960-1279) 宋代 (Sòng dài) Northern Song (960-1126) 北宋 (Běi Sòng) Southern Song (1127-1279) 南宋 (Nán Sòng)• Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) 元朝 (Yuán cháo)• Ming dynasty (1368-1644) 明代 (Míng dài)• (early) Qing dynasty (1644-1911) 清代 (Qīng dài)

Six dynasties (222-589 C.E./A.D.)Tang dynasty (618-907) 唐代 (Táng dài)

Figure painting 人士绘画 (rén shì huì huà)Main artists:• Gù Kǎizhī ( 顧愷之 , 顾恺之 , ca. 344-406)This celebrated painter wrote three books about painting theory: On Painting, Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties, and Painting Yuntai Mountain. He wrote, “In figure paintings the clothes and the appearances are not very important. The eyes are the spirit and the decisive factor”.• Wú Dàozǐ ( 吳道子 , ca. 680-759)He painted a wide variety of subjects, mostly large wall compositions of essentially Buddhist characters. He is especially noted for his imagination and the expressive vigor of his brush: vividly expressive lines of alternately thick and thin strokes, in distinct contrast to the more preciously colored and controlled delineations of the contemporary courtly style.

Six dynasties (222-589 A.D.), Tang dynasty (618-907) 唐代 (Táng dài)Wise and Benevolent Women by Gù Kǎizhī.

Wise and Benevolent Women survives in a 13th century copy dating to the Song Dynasty, and is today located in the Palace Museum in Beijing. It illustrates a group of the women described in the Han dynasty work 'Biographies of Exemplary Women‘ 列女传 (Lienü Zhuan) by the scholar Liu Xiang. The 5 meter long scroll is divided into 10 sections, with each section containing a short description. The Lienü Zhuan served as a standard Confucianist textbook for the moral education of women in traditional China for two millennia. Chapters: Matronly Models, The Worthy and Enlightened, The Benevolent and Wise, The Chaste and Obedient, The Principled and Righteous, The Accomplished Speakers, Depraved Favorites, Supplemental Biographies.

Six dynasties (222-589 A.D.), Tang dynasty (618-907) 唐代 (Táng dài)

The Eighty-seven Immortals 八十 仙人 (bā shí xiān rén) by Wú Dàozǐ

This 292 cm long scroll shows 87 Taoist immortals paying homage to the supreme deity. Now conserved in Xu Beihong Museum.

Five dynasties (907-960)

Landscape painting 江山绘画 (jiāng shān huì huà)Regional differences:• Jīng Hào ( 荊浩 , ca.880-940) spent much of his life as a farmer in the Taihang

Mountains ( 太行山 , Tài háng shān) of Shān xī ( 山西 ) province. He followed the court painters of the Tang dynasty (618–907) in emphasizing the singular grandeur of the landscape. His style is characterized by the use of bold compositions and clear stressed lines, particularly effective in depicting precipitous mountains, contrasted with the softer and more atmospheric effects favoured by artists in southern China.

• Dǒng Yuán ( 董源 , ca 934 – ca 962), born in the Jiangxi Province, was a Chinese painter active in the Southern Tang Kingdom of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. He is especially known for his landscape paintings and exemplified the elegant style which would become the standard for brush painting in China for the next nine centuries. He is one of the founder of Southern school of landscape painting. He used an unusual brush stroke technique, to give a strong sense of foliage to the trees, which contrasts with the rounded waves of stone that build up the mountains themselves. This gives the painting a more distinct middle ground, and makes the mountains have an aura and distance which gives them greater grandeur and personality.

Five dynasties (907-960)

Kuang mount 匡庐山 Dongtian Mountain Hall 洞天山堂图 (Kuāng lú shān) by Jīng Hào (dòng tiān shān táng tú) by Dǒng Yuán

Five dynasties (907-960)

Jīng Hào 荊浩

Dǒng Yuán 董源

Song dynasty (960-1279) 宋代 (Sòng dài) Southern Song (1127-1279) 南宋 (Nán Sòng)

Fàn Kuān ( 范寬 , ca. 990-1020),  Guō Xī ( 郭熙 ), and Lǐ Táng ( 李唐 ) are the most famous painters for this period.Guided by the taste of the emperors, painters at the court

academy focused on observing nature combined with

"poetic sentiment“ to reinforce the expression of both

subject and artist. The focus on poetic sentiment led to

the combination of painting, poetry, and calligraphy

(the "Three Perfections") in the same work by the

Southern Song (1127-1279). Fàn Kuān based

the painting on the Daoist principle of becoming one

with nature. The painting focuses on the big picture of

nature and the world as a whole instead of the individual,

who is overpowered by the magnitude and mystery

of his natural surroundings. The painter rendered the outline of mountains

and slopes with jagged strokes and filled them with brush

dabs like raindrops, to highlight the monumental and eternal features

of the mountains. The signature of Fàn Kuān is on the right of the mule train,

among the leaves, as a final touch showing the insignificance

of humans (including himself) compared to Nature.

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams by Fàn Kuān

Song dynasty (960-1279) 宋代 (Sòng dài) Southern Song (1127-1279) 南宋 (Nán Sòng)

Below: Wind in Pines Among Myriad of Valleys by Lǐ Táng ( 李唐 ). National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Above, right: Early Spring ( 早春圖 ) by Guō Xī ( 郭熙 ). National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Northern Song (960-1126) 北宋 (Běi Sòng)Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) 元朝 (Yuán cháo)

Scholars earlier in the Northern Song (960-1126) thought that painting as an art had to go beyond just the "appearance of forms" in order to express the ideas and cultivation of the artist. This became the foundation of the movement known as literati (scholar, wénrén, 文人 ) painting. The goal of literati painters in the Yuan dynasty was in part to revive the antiquity of the Tang and Northern Song as a starting point for personal expression, certainly with new and personal tunes, some of which gradually developed into important traditions of their own in the Ming and Qing dynasties. As in poetry and calligraphy, the focus on personal cultivation became an integral part of expression in painting.•Main artists were the so called “Four Great Masters of the Yuan”: •Huáng Gōngwàng ( 黃公望 , 1269-1354), •Wú Zhèn ( 吴镇 , 1280-1354), •Ní Zàn ( 倪瓚 , 1301-1374), and •Wáng Méng ( 王蒙 , 1308-1385).

In his works Ní Zàn mainly depicted the dark and iced scene of Lake Taihu (lying across Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces) to create a melancholy, solitary atmosphere. Wáng Méng, who paid much attention to composition, was expert in portraying hermetic life.

Northern Song (960-1126) 北宋 (Běi Sòng)Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) 元朝 (Yuán cháo)

Below: Southern Islet ( 南渚圖 nán zhǔ tú) by Ní Zàn

Above, right: Forest Chamber Grotto at Ju’ou (Lake Tai) by Wáng Méng

Ming dynasty (1368-1644) 明代 (Míng dài)

Differences between local schools:• The styles of "Wu School" artists led by Shěn Zhōu ( 沈周 ) in the Suzhou area, for ex.,

were based on the cultivated approaches of scholar painting by the Four Great Masters of the Yuan, with more “individualist” and innovative approach to art.

• The "Zhe School" led by Dài Jìn ( 戴進 ) consisted mostly of painters from the Zhejiang and Fujian areas; also active at court, they created a direct and liberated manner of monochrome ink painting based on Southern Song models.

Below: Poet on a Mountaintop by Shěn Zhōu

Right: Returning Late from a Spring Outing by Dài Jìn

(early) Qing dynasty (1644-1911) 清代 (qīng dài)

The most important painters were the so called “Four Wangs”:• Wáng Shímǐn ( 王時敏 , 1592-1680)• Wáng Jiàn ( 王鉴 , 1598-1677)• Wáng Huì ( 王翬 , 1632-1717)• Wáng Yuánqí ( 王原祁 , 1642-1715)

Holding the "Four Great Masters of the Yuan" in high esteem, they made great efforts to reproduce the quiet and true natural atmosphere created in the Yuan literati painting. Their style had been established as the orthodox school, so that the preferred (and accepted) way of painting by the authorities. The court also took an interest in Western painting techniques (brought by European missionaries) that involved volume and perspective, which became known to and used by some Chinese painters to create a fused style.

(early) Qing dynasty (1644-1911) 清代 (qīng dài)

Path by the Streams in Autumn Forest by Wáng Shímǐn Peach Blossom, Fishing Boat by Wáng Huì

(early) Qing dynasty (1644-1911) 清代 (qīng dài)

•Outside the court, the major commercial city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu developed the trend toward individualism to become a center for "eccentric" yet professional painters, such as Zhèng Xiè ( 郑燮 , 1693-1765), who depicted mostly bamboo, like here:

•Orchids, Bamboo and Rocks (particular).

(early) Qing dynasty (1644-1911) 清代 (qīng dài)

Individualism and eccentric manners also spread to Shanghai, where the styles of artists were also influenced by “non-orthodox" painting, which

themselves became models for later artists. Rèn Yí ( 任頤 , 1840-1896), Wú Chāngshuò below: Beautiful Moon ( 吳昌碩 , 1844-1927) ( 赏月图 shǎng yuè tú) Peonies and Daffodils

After Qing dynasty (1644-1911) 清代 (qīng dài)• Qí Báishí ( 齐白石 , 1864-1957) famous contemporary artist, “the shrimp

painter” (but not only…):

谢谢 (xiè xie)!Website references used for this presentation:www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting.phpwww.chinese.cnhttp://www.chinese.cn/treasure/en/article/2009-09

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Museums:http://www.namoc.org/en/ - Běijīnghttp://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm - Táiběi

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