Wall-Picture-Painting
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Before the Song
Dynasty, painters at court were skilled artisans whose talents
were called upon to complete the decorative schemes of palaces,
much the way painters helped decorate aristocratic homes and temples.
When the Song defeated their
rivals they also took over their court artists, who included some experts in bird
and flower painting. Then, during the Northern Song, and especially during the
reign of Emperor Huizong (r. 1100-1125), the standing of court painters was raised.
The court painting academy became an educational institution where court painters
were ranked, tested, and rewarded similar as to civil service officials.
In the great catalog of the collection of Emperor Huizong - the Hsuan-ho-hua-pu
whose preface is dated 1120, the paintings are divided into ten different groups,
giving us both a rough indication of their importance and also a chronology for
their appearance in Chinese art.
The ranking is also graded in their
moral importance since the opinion has alwas been that paintings is either useful
and educational, or worthless not to say subversive. Of the around 6,400 paintings
flower and bird paintings made up about half the collection while almost the remaining
half was split even between Daoist and Buddhist painings and, landscapes.
The groups are the following: | | 1. | Daoshih
Daoist, Buddhist and Confutian religious or philosophical art, including
depictions of Gods
| | 2. | Renwu
Humans, ancient rulers and legendary heroes
|
| 3. | Gongshih
Palaces and other buildings | | 4. | Fantze
Foreign tribes | | 5. | Longyu
Dragons and fishes | | 6. |
Shanshui
Landscape. Literally 'mountains' (Shan) and 'waters'
(Shui) | | 7. | Chushou
Animals, popular from Tang | | 8. | Huaniao
Flower and bird painting. Literally 'flowers' (Hua) and 'birds' (Niao) |
| 9. | Mochu
Bamboo in ink
| | 10. | Sukuo
Vegetables and fruits
| | | Beginning
in Huizong's reign, court painters were expected to be able to couple painting
and poetry. Courtly styles throughout the Song and Yuan period were characterized
by technical finesse and close observation. Court artists spent part of their
time copying old masterpieces, a practice that served the practical purposes of
preserving compositions but also helped maintain high technical standards. Throughout
the Southern Song exacting depiction of nature was appreciated at court.
Scholars, on the other hand, during the middle of the Northern Song, began
to take up painting as one of the arts of the gentleman, as means for self expression.
Brushwork in painting, by analogy to brushwork in calligraphy, was believed to
express a person's moral character. Their style was more individualistic, less
refined and easier to master by those already familiar with the brush from calligraphy.
Some even felt that the attempt to capture appearance was beneath the scholar.
Paintings should be understated, not flashy. Figures done with a thin pecilled
line, rather than a modulated one, were considered plainer and more suitable for
scholar painters.
During the years of Mongol rule in the Yuan dynasty,
court sponsorship of painting continued, but at nowhere near the levels of the
previous dynasty. |
Painting
Terms
| Wenrenhua | Literati
painting |
Gongbihua |
Realistic painting |
Pomo |
Ink wash 'broken' by darker ink |
Baimiao |
Outline drawing | | Feibai |
Flying white: strokes where the hairs of the brush separate and leave white spaces |
Cun |
'Wrinkles': different
types of brush stroke |
Pimacun |
Hemp-fibre strokes |
Yudiancun |
Rain-drop strokes |
Fupicun |
Axe-cut strokes |
Juanben |
Work on silk |
Zhiben |
Work on paper | |
