Chinese Painting [antikvár]

Chronological Tabic Han ilynnsty 206 ij.c.-a.d. 220 Yiian tlynasiy 1279-1368 Northern and Southern dynasties 220-581 Ming dynasiy 1368-1644 Sui dynasty 581-618 Ch'ing dynasiy 1644-iyii T'ang dynasty 618-906 Republic 1911-49 I-ivc dynasties 906-60 People's Republic 1949" Northern Sung dynasty 960-1127 Southern Sung dynasty 1127-1279 To understand Chinese painting is to understand the spirit or expressive power of the brush, which in Chinese arl docs not represent the outward appearance of things but the reality of the huinan spirit. The themes and technical approach ofChinese painting have an underlying simplicity which contrasts with the traditional European fidelity to the visual aspect of the subject and the related problems of depicting volume, light, shadow and texture. Chinese painting is essentially a linear art. This is seen not only in the earliest surviving paintings, those of the Han dynasiy where the forms and individual features are determined by unhesitant lines, and with little concern for colour, volume or texture; but also in the works ofthe Ch'ing masters, like Hung-jen, Tao-chi, and Chu Ta, and, more recently, in Ch'i Pai-shih's paintings. The Chinese regarded painting as their only real art. Sculpture, a fine art in the West played a minor role in China. On the other hand, the so-called decorative arts, such as textiles, metalwork, ceramics, all disciplines for which the Chinese are noted, do not generally fall within the Western definition of a 'pure' art form. But whereas there were stylistic connections among the different dccorative arts, the development of Chinese painting remained aloof and independent. It became, for the most part, the preserve of a similarly aloof and independent class, that ofthe scholar-gentleman. The paramount and enduring theme ofChinese painting is landscape. The origins of the tradition lie in the tentative naturalism which characterizes theartofthe Han and the Southern and Northern dynasties, but it was not until the T'ang that landscape began to emerge as a distinctive theme. Unfortunately, the only surviving examples of T'ang landscape painting are the Tunhuang cave murals (Plates 5 and 12). However, paintings and literary references ofthe immediate post-T'ang era, that is the Five Dynasties and the Northern Sung periods, indicate the style of the landscape tradition. As the tradition developed so its critics emerged. One of the earliest theorists was Su Tung-p'o (1036-iioi) whose statement 'You must first realize the whole thing completely in your mind' encapsulated the Chinese approach to painting, and to the landscape theme in particular. Although they absorbed the spirit and majesty of the real landscape, the Northern Sung masters, like Li Ch'eng (Plate 10) and Fan K'uan, actually painted not amid the grandeur of nature but in a studio. Their paintings, therefore, were not accurate representations, but impressions of what they had seen, and because consequently painting was an expressive art, spontaneous brushwork developed into a vital tradition. At the same time, there were painters who valued less conventional styles and techniques that partly denied visual accuracy. The reasons for diverging from Academy norms were formulated by scholars around the poet and critic, Su Tung-p'o, and their attitudes became pre-eminent in the Yiian dynasty and later painting. Su Tung-p'o and his colleagues belonged to the literati class, that is they were intellectual bureaucrats who wrote and painted in their spare time; their school of painting was known as wen-jeu-hua, or 'literary man's painting'. Poetry had long been a vehicle of expression for the cultured man; the Southern Sung literati simply added painting to the list of prescribed activities. They adopted unorthodox techniques to express their innermost thoughts and reactions, and introduced an 'impressionistic' style, epitomized in the work of one of the School's leading painters. sought to revitalize ancient ideals, in particular the 'blue and green' style, with more contemporary notions, the later Yiian masters rejected the increasingly turbulent world and the traditional values of officialdom. The work of Ch'ien Hsuan and Chao Meng-fu illustrates how profound the effect of the Mongol invasion was upon the painting institutions of China. The Academy, the Ma-Hsai School and the coterie of artists and literary men at Hangchou were all defunct, while most of their followers moved into rural obscurity out of loyally to the fallen Sung. The painters, like Chao Meng-fu, who served at the Mongol court, sought a more objective approach to art, but their Mongol masters were hardly concerned with Chinese artistic traditions. After Kublai Khan's death in 1333, the fabric and structure of Mongol China began to collapse. Amid ever-increasing disturbances educated men withdrew from public and official life. Such conditions prompted Ni Tsan and Wu Chen to become virtual recluses. These two artists, together with Huang Kung-wang and Wang Meng, are the 'Four Great Masters' of the later Yuan period (Plates 23, 26, 27, 29). Huang Kung-wang and Ni Tsan probably most influenced later Chinese landscape painting. Their bland style perfectly expressed the ideal scholarly temperament. Dry brush-strokes, long, dragged, and oftenstragglingstrokes contribute to compositions in which volumes and space echo one another in a profound but curiously objective manner.