Although landscape had played a part in the backgrounds of Chinese pictorial art from at least the Han dynasty onward, landscape began to become a viable painting subject in its own right during the 7th and 8th centuries. Two stylistic directions developed at this time: the more detailed, colorful, narrative style of the professional painters of the Tang court; and the more poetic and subdued style of the amateur painter, Wang Wei.
Tang Dynasty (7th - 10th century)
Artists developed advanced brush techniques that enabled them to portray nature in the most realistic manner of any period of Chinese painting. Naturalism based on observation reached its climax in Chinese landscape painting of the 10th and 11th centuries; by the late 11th and 12th centuries, alternative ideas about painting were being developed by a circle of intellectuals (literati) who promoted the idea that the primary goal of painting was not representation, but self-expression. There also developed at this time an art dedicated to the small and intimate delights of nature - birds, flowers, and animals. This mode of painting was especially popular with artists associated with the Imperial Painting Academy.
cun - brushstrokes used to portray texture (usually in rocks and mountains) in Chinese landscape painting
After the Song court moved south to escape the Chin Tartars in 1127, landscape painting changed from the carefully constructed monumental compositions of the 10th and 11th centuries to more intimate scenes that were less explicit and more suggestive. Southern Song court artists became more preoccupied with atmosphere and lyrical mood in landscape, and their compositions were often strongly asymmetrical, with the weight of the design confined to one corner and large areas of empty space. There was a marked preference for angularity over curving or flowing line.
Xia Gui, Twelve Views from a Thatched Hut -Right(#480) - 13th c.
Xia Gui, Twelve Views from a Thatched Hut -Left (#480) - 13th c.
Although Ch'an Buddhism originated in China in the 6th century, the high point for Ch'an painting occurred in the Southern Song period when many monasteries surrounding the capital of Hangzhou became important centers for art and culture. Ch'an, as opposed to other sects of Mahayana Buddhism, stressed a direct, personal, intuitive, and often spontaneous approach to enlightenment - characteristics which are also manifested in Ch'an painting.
Mu Qi, Triptych (#484)
- 13th century
Mu Qi, 6 Persimmons
(#485) - 13th century
Liang Kai, Hui
Neng Chopping Bamboo (#487) - 13th century
Yu Jian, Mountain Village in Clearing Mist (#488) - 13th century
triptych - a format used in painting in which the work is comprised of three separate panels or paintings.
Ch'an - a form of Mahayana Buddhism which stresses meditation as a means to (often spontaneous) enlightenment.
Suggested: Cahill, chpt. 2, 3, 6, 7, 8