Chinese Art, 2000 BC - 1800 AD

Guys,

you are definately, a few days ago, there was a Chinese Lattern Festival in Toronto, i was amused

The earliest surviving examples of Chinese paintings we have are from the Warring States Period (481-221 BC) and Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) painted on silk or tomb murals painted on rock, brick, and stone. However, the earliest of these paintings during the late Zhou period were rudimentary, 2 dimensional scenes of mythical creatures and people drawn in the same continual, stylized format, nothing like the people and creatures depicted in the same time period on the intricate 3 dimensional art of ancient Shang and Zhou Dynasty bronze-wares, jade carvings, and the enormous Terracotta Army assembled in life-like men and horses for the tomb of the First Qin Emperor (died in 210 BC). In the ancient Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties, the functions of art were often reserved for purposes of geomancy, funerary rights, representation of the mythological deities and ancestor spirits, in other words, mythological and religious in intent and practice. The First Qin Emperor truly believed that the 8,099 Terracotta men and horses he had thousands working to craft and labor on would serve to guard him in the afterlife.

Warring States painting on silk of a man riding a dragon, Chu State tomb, 5th-3rd century BC:


Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 8 AD) Silk Banner found in the tomb at Mawangdui


An example of Han Dynasty murals:





Tomb murals of horse-riders on a hunt and outing, Wei Dynasty (220-265 AD)


Even after the papermaking process was innovated by Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty (2nd century), paper wasn't necessarily the material of choice for exquisite paintings (although printed materials from the 9th century onwards on paper would feature inked artwork), as silk scrolls remained the prevalent method for those to express themselves through art. During the Wei and Western Jin Dynasties, mural paintings and painted decorations on silk became gradually more complex, but the real revolution in Chinese art (along with the introduction of professional landscape art) came during the Northern and Southern Dynasties Period (317-581 AD). It was during the early 4th century that the once centrally unifying Western Jin state was threatened and then defeated by oncoming northern steppe nomads known as the Xiongnu, who sacked the capital at Luoyang and forced the Jin court to flee south to establish their control over the southern half of China, establishing the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420 AD) at Jiankang (modern-day Nanjing). While culture in the north became a hybrid Chinese/northern nomadic fusion (the military ranks even drawn up opon the standards of nomadic cavalry units), the southern dynasties saw their own cultural flourishing apart from the northerners. It was here at Jiankang (Nanjing) where the social norms and accepted practices/pasttimes of a proper Confucian literati were developed and implemented. The most important sophisticated pasttimes of an upright Confucian scholar or bureaucrat became established as:

1. Writing and reciting poetry
2. Playing the musical instrument of the guqin (ancient Chinese stringed-zither)
4. Writing through fancy calligraphy
3. Painting, whether it be landscape, portrait, etc.

Poetry became so emphasized in Chinese society during the Tang Dynasty, that it was actually made one of the required fields of study to master if one wanted to pass the rigid Civil Service and Imperial Exams in order to become a government official. However, for the purposes of this thread, I'll stick to painting. With a greater emphasis on painting came greater social expectations for one to achieve greater and more sophisticated artistic heights than their contemporaries, and especially their Han predecessors who were avid tomb mural and silken dress/banners/scroll painters. Arguably the greatest artistic painter during this time was the court official for the Eastern Jin known as Gu Kaizhi, who painted his first painting in Nanjing in 364 AD, at the age of 20. Gu Kaizhi was not only popular in his own time, but was revered by later artists who used him and his art as the prime example of matured Chinese art. Gu Kaizhi once wrote, "In figure paintings the clothes and the appearances were not very important. The eyes were the spirit and the decisive factor."

Landscape Artwork and Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies originally painted by the Eastern Jin Dynasty master of art, Gu Kaizhi (lived 344-406 AD)



Eric

Edited by Preobrazhenskoe - 30-Oct-2006 at 22:25

Eric, you seem to be quite an expert on Chinese art. I want to ask you a question that maybe quite a few of us who know little about Chinese art would like to ask - Can you tell the difference between the different styles and different periods of, say, Chinese painting?

Buddhist Divinity, Attendants, Musicians, and Dancer, mid 14th century, late Yuan or early Ming Dynasty

Yueyang Pavilion, by Xia Yong, mid 14th century, late Yuan or early Ming Dynasty

Scroll Painting, A Palace Between Lake and Mountains, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

Geese Beneath the Moon, 15th century Ming Dynasty

The Goddess Chang'e in the Lunar Palace, original by Zhou Wenju, 16th century

A Mother, Child, and Three Maids, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)

Cornice of Funerary Couch, limestone, 550 - 577 AD

Northern Song Dynasty Ewer, porcelain qingbai glaze, 11th century

Southern Song Dynasty Vase, glazed stoneware guan-type, 12th century

Eastern Zhou Dynasty Ceremonial Stemmed Oval Cup, lacquer-ware, 5th-4th century BC

Eric

Awesome, Qin Dynasty! I wish I could see it first-hand myself, although the half-hour-long wait for a 5 minute viewing would be somewhat of a downer. :( Still, a great piece of art.

Eastern Zhou Dynasty, ritual wine container (hu), 8th century BC

Eastern Zhou Dynasty, ritual wine vessel, bronze, gold, and silver, 6th-5th century BC

Tang Dynasty, jade-carved figure of a plump foreign traveler, 7th century AD

Northern Song Dynasty, Longquan type ware, stoneware, circa 960-1000 AD

Ming Dynasty, Guanyin Figurine, ivory, early 17th century

Yuan Dynasty, porcelain dish, early-to-mid 14th century

Ming Dynasty, lacquer over wood cup and stand, Yongle Reign (1403-1424)

Ming Dynasty, portrait of Father Zhang Jimin and Mother Zhao, early 17th century

Zhong Kui Patrolling the Palace, by Hongwu (active 1751-1792)

Qing Dynasty, Cloisonne Stupa, metal, enamel, gilt, Qianlong Emperor's reign era (1735-1796)

Eric

Originally posted by Hellios Eric,�heard about this? � "A Chinese ceramic bowl from the 18th century sold for $19.42 million US at an auction in Hong Kong on Tuesday, breaking the world record price�for Qing Dynasty ceramics, Christie's auction house said. � The famille rose Guyuexuan �bowl bears the seal of the Qianlong Emperor, who reigned from 1736 to 1795. � It�is the most expensive work of art ever sold in an Asian auction, Christie's said." � URL: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2006/11/28/qing-dynasty-bowl.html?ref=rss � [IMG]height=248 src="http://www.allempires.com/forum/uploads/20061201_043946_61.jpg" width=373> � Rgds, Bill �

    
Holy crap man! 19 million dollars!? Besides the fact of this guy being able to sling money around like that, I wonder if this guy has actually seen other genuine porcelain items from the Qianlong era, as I've even posted some here. I'm sorry, but the enameling on that bowl, and the overall design, are of a lesser quality than a good amount of Qianlong-era porcelain wares I've seen. Period. It's really not that exquisite, to be honest...heck, the Charles Lang Freer gallery porcelain items blow that out of the water. If I was that guy, even with that kind of money, I wouldn't have paid more than $5-7 million for it. But no more, cuz it just wouldn't be worth it (unless the money was going to a charity or something nice like that, which is often the case with auctions like this). Is Christie's auction house a major charity provider?

Eric

Thanks for the analysis, Charioteer.