Chinese Korea Japan Art History Guo Xi Early Spring
Alone Temple amid Clearing Peaks
(c.960) Hanging scroll, ink on silk.
By Li Cheng.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
HISTORY OF VISUAL ART
For dates of early cultures,
see: Prehistoric Art Timeline.
For later dates and chronology,
see: History of Art Timeline.
For movements and periods,
see: History of Art.
Introduction
The contribution to Chinese art of the Songs ranks aslope that of the earlier era of Tang Dynasty fine art (618-906), itself a high signal in the culture of medieval Red china. The Vocal Dynasty is divided into two quite singled-out periods: the Northern Song (Bei Song) (960-1127), based in Bianjing (present-solar day Kaifeng), which controlled nigh of inner China; and the Southern Song (Nan Song) (1127-1279), based at Lin'an (nowadays-day Hangzhou). During the latter, the Vocal ceded control of the Yellow river (the traditional birthplace of Chinese culture) plus the rest of northern People's republic of china to the Jin Dynasty (Jinn or Jurchen Dynasty), the Tartar ancestors of the Manchus who ruled during the era of Qing Dynasty art (1644-1911). During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese population doubled to roughly 200 meg due to expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China: several cities along the main waterways and the southeast coast boasted more than than 1 meg inhabitants. Patronage of numous types of art flourished - several Song Emperors prided themselves on their skill at ink and launder painting - not to the lowest degree because the wealthier classes became gorging collectors of works of art and antiquities, as exemplified by the activities of the poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101). Chinese painting and calligraphy were the most prestigious arts, but jade carving as well as black and red Chinese lacquerware also flourished. (The Bei Song period is nearly famous for its painting, the Nan Song for its decorative work.) The sciences also proliferated during the Song, while under the Northern Song's renewal of Buddhism, the philosophy of Confucianism was combined with Daoism and Buddhist asceticism to produce Neo-Confucianism. Meanwhile, the invention of movable type during the 1040s greatly facilitated the production and circulation of manuscripts and texts. Like Tang woodblock press (see also: Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints), this had an important touch on on literacy and thus on educational opportunities for the less well-off. As a issue, Chinese society during the Songs was characterized past a meaning shift abroad from rule by hereditary aristocrats to government by scholar-officials selected by competitive examination. Afterward the Songs came the era of Yuan Dynasty art (1271-1368) under the Mongol leader Kublai Khan. For the influence of Song and Yuan civilisation on Korea, see: Korean Art (from 3000 BCE). For more near the arts and crafts of Asia, please see: Asian Art (from 38,000 BCE).
Painting
Most of all, the Northern Song is famous for landscape painting, 1 of the most beautiful expressions of Chinese culture. In an attempt to escape the turmoil and upheaval that occurred at the end of the Tang dynasty (618–906), a number of tenth-century painters retreated into the mountains where they institute, in nature, the moral equilibrium for which they had searched in vain in the human world. In these visionary landscape pictures, they depicted the neat mountain - which towered above everything else - every bit a ruler watching over his subjects: an idealized theme taken upward by later Song court painters, who transformed information technology into an emblem of a well ordered country.
An of import expression of Song unification after the violent 5 Dynasties menstruum (907–threescore) was the emergence of a distinctive manner of courtroom painting adept by graduates of the Royal Painting Academy, many of whom went on to serve the needs of the purple court. Afterward, the differing artistic strands embodied by these court painters came together to form a single harmonious type of academic fine art that - while different to Western "naturalism" - came close to a naturalistic portrayal of the physical world and the exact rendering of an object.
The best mural artists of the Vocal Dynasty include Fan Kuan (c.960-1030), and Li Cheng (919–967), responsible for the wonderful silk painting Solitary Temple amid Clearing Peaks (c.960, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine art). Meanwhile, shan shui (mount-water) landscape art was embodied by the likes of Guo Xi (c.1020-90), and his masterpiece Early Bound (1072, National Palace Museum, Taipei).
Other leading Chinese painters of the Song Dynasty included: Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145), the scholarly artist, whose masterpiece Life Along the River on the Eve of the Qing Ming Festival (c.1100, National Palace Museum, Beijing) provides an in-depth illustration of daily life in the upper-case letter city Bianjing. The work, a set of paintings on a silk handscroll, depicts the metropolis's inhabitants during the festival. Its depictions are and so vivid and comprehensive, that it is frequently called "the Chinese Mona Lisa". Other noted Song artists included: Yan Wengui (967-1044), Xu Daoning (c.970-1051), Su Shi (1036-1101), Li Gonglin/ Li Longmian (c.1049-1106), Li Tang (c.1050-1130), Mi Fu (1051-1107), Ma Hezhi (flourished c.1131-62), Ma Yuan (flourished 1190-1225), Liang Kai (early 13th century). See also: Pen and Ink Drawing.
The Song era also reportedly gave nativity to the Chinese tradition of paper folding, known every bit "zhezhi" - better known in the West through the Japanese version called Origami , invented around 1600.
Effect of Neo-Confucianism on Song Painting
A notable difference exists between the painting of the Northern Song flow (960–1127) and that of the Southern Vocal period (1127–1279). Bei Song art was shaped by the dominant political concern of bringing guild to the globe and, in the process, sorting out the major issues affecting society at large. Thus paintings typically depicted vast, sweeping landscapes. In dissimilarity, the Nan Song concerned themselves primarily with reforming society from the bottom upward and on a much smaller calibration. Therefore, their paintings tended to feature smaller, more intimate scenes. This modify in attitude derived largely from the growing influence of Neo-Confucianism. (Note: For the key principles underlying art in Cathay, come across: Traditional Chinese Art: Characteristics.)
Pottery
If Vocal fine art is exemplified by painting, its decorative art is best illustrated past exquisite Chinese pottery, for which both the Northern and Southern Vocal dynasties are renowned. Bei Song ceramic art is especially rare and valuable, because most of the imperial kilns (including the famous Ru kiln) were located in the n, where they were destroyed or shut downwardly later the Tartar invasion of 1127. As a result Ru-ware with its subtle greenish and blue-grayness glazes has become the virtually precious of Chinese ceramics. Other valuable Northern Song pottery includes Ding, Zhun, Cizhou, northern celadon, and brown and blackness glazed objects. Nan Song pottery was (and is) every bit revered, peculiarly for its Jingdezhen whiteware, Jizhou wares, and the historic blackness pottery of Fujian. Longquan celadon as well as celadon made at the Guan kilns, near Lin'an, were among the finest of their type. The Southern Song also witnessed the further development of glazed and translucent Chinese porcelain also every bit enamelled celadon.
For more about the historical background to Vocal Dynasty culture, see: Chinese Art Timeline (xviii,000 BCE - present).
Sculpture
The small-scale Vocal revival of Buddhism, since its repression nether the late Tangs, precipitated a new stage of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. This was plainly evidenced in the continued construction of monumental stone sculpture at the Dazu site in Sichuan province. Like the sculpture at Dazu, the temple at Mingshan in Anyue, Sichuan province, contains an extensive brandish of Song era Buddhist statues and other sculptures, which includes representations of Buddha, too every bit Boddhisattvas and other deities dressed in lavish robes.
Compages
Song architecture was characterized by its tall buildings, such every bit the 360-human foot (110-metre) pagoda in Bianjing, likewise as the eaves of its roofs which Song architects curved upward at the corners. A number of vi-sided or 8-sided brick or forest pagodas notwithstanding survive from the Vocal era. It is the farthermost scarcity of surviving structures dating back to aboriginal or medieval Red china that continues, quite unfairly, to minimize the importance of Chinese architects and designers from these times.
Notation: For a fascinating comparison with SE Asian compages of the Song menstruation, run across the sandstone reliefs every bit well every bit the statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas at the Angkor Wat Central khmer Temple (1115-45) in Cambodia.
Later Chinese Dynasties
Traditional visual arts of afterwards periods in Chinese history are typically divided as follows:
- Ming Dynasty fine art (1368-1644)
- Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
For more than about other Asian cultures, see: Japanese Art every bit well as: Bharat, Painting & Sculpture.
Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/east-asian-art/song-dynasty.htm