Finally, we have to talk about the "golden age" of the Song Dynasty in the history of Chinese painting.
As the saying goes, "the world will be divided for a long time, and it will be united for a long time", the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty ended the dispute situation of the five generations and ten countries, which is not only conducive to the prosperity of the economy, the stability of the people's livelihood, but also conducive to the development of art.
The founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, chen qiao mutinied, the yellow robe was added to his body, and after seizing power, in order to prevent his generals from imitating his own practices, he adopted the national policy of "emphasizing literature and suppressing martial arts".
In this way, the status of the literati has been greatly improved, and it has also led to an upsurge in the study of culture in the whole society, thus greatly improving the per capita cultural level.
With money and culture, the demand for art naturally increases.
To decorate the homes of the nobles, murals, hanging paintings, screens, etc. are indispensable; monks and Taoists must compete for believers, murals, sculptures are an excellent propaganda medium; restaurants, tea shops and other shops must also hang calligraphy and paintings to attract customers. There are even special advertising paintings and LOGO (logo) designs...
It just so happened that the Western Shu and Southern Tang Dynasty trained a large number of painters, and with the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, they ran to the capital Beijing to "beg for a living".
Suddenly, the painters of The Capital City gathered, and the famous hands were like a forest, which became another ancient painting center after Luoyang in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty.
At that time, at the temple fair of the royal temple Daxiangguo Temple (the place where Lu Zhishen pulled the willows upside down in "Water Margin"), there were stalls for buying and selling pictures and books, and the back porch of the temple had a small shop specializing in portraits.
The multifaceted demand for painting by nobles, literati, scholars, and merchants and citizens has made the painting subject matter more extensive, the styles diverse, and the painters are constantly innovating in order to win in the fierce market competition.
To give a few examples:
There was a famous beauty in the capital, Qin Miaoguan, and the painters painted her portrait and sold it in the market, just like the current star portraits. However, there are thousands of faces, each painter paints differently, and the ancient portraits are indeed weaker in realism, so Qin Meinu is not afraid to go out and be recognized.
Children's paintings are also popular. According to records, there is a "Du Bao'er" who is good at painting babies in Beijing, and there is also a painter named Liu Zongdao, who created the theme of "ZhaoPu Bao'er", that is, the child uses his finger to point to his own shadow in the basin, and the shadow also points to the child, full of creativity and good sales. In order to prevent others from imitating and robbing business, Liu Zongdao painted hundreds of copies each time and sold them once, just like the current teacher Fan Zeng, who is very business-minded.
Qing Dynasty Lang Shining's imitation of the painting "Zhao Peng Bao'er"
How hot was the business of selling paintings at that time?
It even attracted many people to change their professions to sell paintings. One of them, Yan Wengui, was originally a military member, who had been a soldier for generations, because he liked to paint, he ran to the street market in Beijing to exhibit and sell his works, so he was noticed by the painting academy to be zhao Gaoyi, and he was recommended to the royal painting academy, and finally became a famous landscape painter in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Yan Wengui's works can still be seen now. There are mainly "Xishan Lou Guantu" (now in the Palace Museum, Taiwan), "Jiangshan Lou Guantu" (now in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Japan), "Yanlan Water Temple" and so on.
《View of Xishan Lou》
Like Yan Wengui, many painters who came from the grassroots and became famous in society were recruited to enter the palace and serve the emperor. (About the painting institute and the courtyard body painting first dig a pit, and then fill in later)
Selling paintings is not only the domestic market, but also the international market.
Paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty were sold in large quantities outside the Song Dynasty through the "Yuchang" bordering the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia.
There are also guilds in Japan that specialize in making Buddhist paintings for Goryeo and Japan. For example, in Ningbo, there are works painted by "Lu Xinzhong" Fangshi, and there are hundreds of existing temples in Japan.
Southern Song Dynasty Lu Xinzhong's "Luohan Chart Axis"
In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were painters who gave up the opportunity to work in the court painting academy, preferring to paint portraits on the street – it is obvious that "going to the sea" is more expensive and more attractive.
In addition to setting up stalls to sell paintings, another important source of income for Song Dynasty painters was painting murals in temples.
Painting murals is actually a traditional project of painters, and painting Saint Wu Daozi is famous for painting murals.
The most famous painting mural in the Song Dynasty is Wu Zongyuan, and the representative work is "Chaoyuan Immortal Battle Map", which we will talk about next time.
In short, when the paintings of the Song Dynasty were consumed by all classes of society like handicraft goods, it was closer to life, and it also attracted more people to participate in the creation of paintings, coupled with the general attention of the Emperors of the Song Dynasty to cultural undertakings, not only famous artists, but also promoted the improvement of the overall artistic level of the Song Dynasty, creating a new peak of ancient Chinese painting.
This article is a companion article to "Fun talk about the history of Chinese characters/calligraphy" and a series of articles on the history of Chinese art (tentative name). Every minute, harvest a lifetime of knowledge, you deserve it! Pay attention to the previous article, and prompt the update in time. Please indicate the source of the reprint, welcome to the publisher to contact me.