In the 16th-century Dutch painter Bruegel Sr.'s masterpiece "Winter Scene with Skaters and Bird Traps", the skaters become close-ups, allowing people to see the real state of the skaters
There are a hundred flowers in autumn and a moon, and there is a cool breeze in summer and snow in winter.
In the cold season of March 949, it is the time to "walk on the ice". Perhaps for the compatriots in the south, going to the ice and snow skiing is a kind of "poetry and far away"; but in the frozen north country, people go out to see either frozen three feet or thousands of miles of snow, go out to slide a snow, skate, just like swimming and running on weekdays.
On the occasion of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, let's take a look at how ice and snow sports, as an "ordinary" sport, have been represented in art history.
Ice and snow-themed works reflect the vicissitudes of art history
Ice and snow sports appear in the context of art history, dating back to petroglyphs. In 2005, a petroglyph was found in the Mongolian township of KhanDegat in Altay City, Xinjiang, depicting multiple figures hunting with their feet wearing skis and holding ski poles. According to expert identification, the date of the petroglyphs is about 10,000 years old, which predates other known related archaeological discoveries. In addition, ski hunting petroglyphs have been found in other locations in Xinjiang. Therefore, some scholars believe that the Altay region of Xinjiang, China, is the earliest origin of human skiing. Today, there is still a folk song about ski hunting in the Khandgat Township of Altay City: "Carrying a bow and arrow made of willow wood, pushing a ski pole obliquely with both hands, stepping on fur skis made of red pine and white pine wood, and quickly sliding in the pine forest, brave, flexible, clever hunters..."
The picture of this ballad is very strong. It seems to illustrate that landscape is an important element for snow sports. Compared with other sports, which pay more attention to the sport itself, the techniques of the movement and the relatively simple equipment and convenient sports facilities, skiing has more elements to consider, and sometimes it is a dialogue with nature. Because the prerequisites for skiing are not only the local winter cold, heavy snowfall, but also the long snow storage time, as well as the wide distribution of the hills where the skiing site is located, the rich forest resources, the human civilization and the skiing needs for production and life.
Therefore, the vast majority of the earliest fine art works that expressed the theme of ice and snow sports were classified as landscape paintings, rather than figure paintings or portraits. However, if we pick up bits and pieces of materials in the vast galaxy of art history, we will find that the series of clues in it also reflects the evolution of art history's own style and concepts.
A sporting custom embellished as a landscape painting
In the paintings of the Middle Ages, the emergence of ice and snow sports did not appear as a specific category, nor as an independent object of expression, but in the vast landscape, becoming an activity to express local customs. The most famous example is the 16th-century Dutch painter Bruegel Sr. in The Snow Hunter (below).
This wonderful masterpiece, which is famous in the history of art, is not only a representation of the customs of the Netherlands at that time, but also in its excellent composition and character scene treatment, the close-up, medium-range, and long-range scenes are spread out layer by layer, although the colors are mainly white snow and blue-gray sky, but the picture is extremely vivid: the hunter in the close-up with a group of hounds, and the farmer is busy with housework; the middle scene is a group of people skating lively, the distant view is a vast farmhouse and a towering mountain, and the sky is also hovering with a few crows. It is clearly a "dead vine and old tree crow" style of Depression, but under the painter's pen, it is full of vitality and thick pyrotechnics. Bruegel Sr.'s excellent technique makes the composition of the painting like a modern film, and this perspective has great advantages in expressing the dynamic state (whether hunting or sports). Another famous snow scene by Bruegel Sr. can be compared and referenced, "Winter Scene with Skaters and Bird Catchers" (title), and the skaters in this painting become close-up, just like the film lens pushes forward to the middle scene of "Snow Hunter", allowing us to see the real state of the skaters.
Landscape paintings in the Netherlands in the 17th century, especially winter scenes, left a large number of themes depicting ice and snow sports, such as the Dutch painter Hendrick Avikamp's "Winter Scenes with Skaters", which is as the name suggests, and also uses skaters as an embellishment of winter landscapes. There is also Anthony Bildstedt's picture not only ice skating, but also curling, ice hockey, ice rowing, ice bowling and other fun projects, which constitute "Ice Play by the Walls of the Town".
A festival ceremony that is a symbol of national power
At about the same time that ice and snow sports frequently appeared in European landscape paintings, "ice and snow maps" were also prevalent in China. However, in China, ice and snow sports have had a special title since the Song Dynasty, known as "ice play"; unfortunately, the paintings left by the Song Dynasty rarely see the subject of ice and snow sports, which may be related to the fact that the Han people are not good at ice and snow sports, and the literati doctors prefer Zhong Lingyuxiu's Jiangnan style, so they deliberately ignore the cold of the northern country. However, in the Qing Dynasty, the situation was very different. The Manchus, who had come from the ice and snow of Jinge Iron Horse, after using iron horses to conquer the country, they were obsessed with hunting and ice and snow sports. Every emperor of the Qing Dynasty had the custom of hunting every year, called "Mulan Qiumi"; Mulan means "sentinel deer" and "hunting" in Manchu. Then, Bing Xi evolved from the hunting customs of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the early years to a more popular court festival and people's customs. First of all, Bing Xi had matured into a fixed festival in nurhaci's time, reaching its peak in the Qianlong period, and declining in the court in the late Daoguang period, and continued to develop in the folk.
"Ice Painting" is also a classic motif of traditional Chinese painting, and there are many works that have survived to this day. Of course, this was due to the attention and promotion of the emperor himself at that time. It can be seen that in the Qing Dynasty, works such as "Ice Frolic Map" were not only paintings, but also symbols of the national strength of the imperial court, and could even be said to be part of the history. The Qianlong Emperor once wrote "Ice Frolic Endowment", which specifically stated that "the special creation of ice frolic, the common customs of the country, the bandits are clever because of difficulties, and they are competing for the lead with the courage of the people, and the martial arts are the ones, and the benefits are awarded." Not only informing the origin of ice play, but also pointing out the purpose of proof of the ice and snow sports at that time.
During the Qianlong period, the court painters Zhang Weibang and Yao Wenhan co-authored "Ice Play", which successfully showed the grandeur of the empire, the scene was grand, and the details were also in great detail. From the work, we can see that people are not only skating, but also include a variety of acrobatic actions: figure skating various moves "big scorpion", "golden rooster independence", "Nezha noisy sea", "double flying swallow", "jack drop"; acrobatic climbing poles, flipping bars, flying forks, knife playing, sticks, and flags; as well as armament competition nature of skating, archery, etc., really can be described as an encyclopedia. The "8" figure in this "Ice Play Map" has also become a master version of reinterpretation and interpretation by later artists, such as Cai Guoqiang's nine-meter-long scroll "Galaxy Ice Play" inspired by it, which is being exhibited in the opening exhibition "Cai Guoqiang: Encounter with the Unknown" at the Pudong Art Museum in Shanghai.
The Qing Palace also has Jin Kun, Cheng Zhidao, Fu Long'an and other paintings of the "Ice Play Picture Scroll" (below, partial), the ice play site depicted in this volume should be the water surface south of the Jin'ao Yuxing Bridge (now Beihai Bridge), performing the dragon shooting project. Sweeping through the pavilions near and far in the West Garden, the mist-shrouded houses and frosted branches indicate that it is a harsh winter in the north. It can be seen that the treatment of ice here is more similar to the old Bruegel of the Netherlands, which regards ice and snow sports as a kind of scenery and customs. This scroll also features the Inscription of the Qianlong Emperor's Imperial Ice Frolic Orderly Written by Ji Huang – and the inscription is a unique way of appreciating Chinese painting and calligraphy.
There are also ice beds, which are a common means of transportation for ice and snow, and later developed into sports games. In ancient China, this kind of tool was quite common, and Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty lived in Xiyuan, and the crown prince went from the palace to meet him, that is, to cross the river by taking an ice bed. In the Qing Dynasty's "Imperial Qing Gongtu" woodblock print, there is an image of an ice bed pulled by three dogs.
As a symbolic symbol of salon socializing
From the group to the individual, from the landscape to the concept, it is a great change in the history of art, and it is also a sign of the transition from the Middle Ages and modern times to modernism. Gradually, art has shown a more diversified look in the theme of ice and snow sports. Let's start with the changes in the framing. In the 18th century there was a change in the depiction of skaters "carried out" individually. In 1782, the American painter Gilbert Stewart created "The Skater" to make it famous. The skater in the picture is obviously an aristocrat, the place is the ice surface of The Nine-Curved Lake in Hyde Park, London, and the freeze-frame moment is a gorgeous turn, with an extremely elegant posture. In the background, in addition to the scenery of the ruins that the European aristocracy loved at that time, there were also men dressed as European aristocrats playing and chatting.
If we carefully study the language of the picture, we will understand that skating is actually a kind of social activity in the salon at that time, and its fashionable status symbolism is far greater than the sports significance. This is the first time in the art of painting that ice and snow sports are regarded as a kind of market symbol and symbol. Coincidentally, the British painter Sir Henry Labber's "The Priest of Skiing" is also a scene of the elegant skiing of the prestigious priest Robert Walker at that time, in this painting, in order to match the identity of the characters, all the decorative elements of the background are removed, only the vast and endless landscape, which is a kind of "sublime" paradigm.
The same idea and pictorial representation can be found in the French Rococo painter François Boucher's Four Seasons: Winter. The aristocratic woman in the painting sits on a gilded sleigh in a fur-lined robe and is pushed by a gentleman and gliding on the snow. The clouds in the sky are comfortable, the grass on the ground is lush, it seems that it is not so winter, and the sleigh is not important here. Especially in the 19th century, when salons were prevalent, we can see in works such as William Norman's "Carnival on Ice" that perhaps the nobles simply moved socializing and dancing to the ice.
François P. In Boucher's Four Seasons: Winter, noblewomen wear fur-lined robes and sit on a gilded sleigh, pushed by a gentleman and glide on the snow. The figure is a part of the figure
In the 19th century, the era of salons prevailed, as can be seen in William Norman's "Carnival on Ice", perhaps the nobles just moved social networking and dances to the ice
Pure pleasure as a way of life
By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the advent of Impressionism brought painting from indoors to the outdoors, and the invention of new tubular pigments also made outdoor sketching possible. As a result, the landscape is no longer just an "imaginary landscape" or a "sleeping" way, but also a way of life. In this context, the case of one artist depicting the subject of the skater is quite typical, that is, the Chinese painter Xiao Shufang. Her work is typical because she herself loves and is good at skating. Xiao Shufang, who grew up under the influence of Western culture and education since childhood, visited museums around the world during her study in Europe, which laid the foundation for the fusion techniques and characteristics of Chinese and Western fusion in her later painting creation.
Xiao Shufang has been skating in the North Sea with her sisters since she was a child. The North Sea Ice Rink also has a story. As mentioned above, after the Manchu Qing Entered the Customs, they brought their customs and sports, among which the "Eight Flags Skate Camp" used the Imperial Garden Sanhai, including beihai, as a large parade venue, and developed into a grand "ice frolic" national custom in the court. In 1925, the North Sea was turned into a park and open to the public. In the winter of the year of opening, a special ice skating rink and ice car rink were set up. Its grandeur can be seen in Chen Zongfan's statement in the "Yandu Cong Kao": "If the day is a harsh winter, there are many tourists, and in recent years, there are ice rinks on the left and right of The Yilan Hall and the Five Dragon Pavilion, thinking that it is a skating play, the fact is the same, those who do not know think that Europe and the United States are high winds, young people flock to it, and they go in disguise, which is enough to move for a while, compared with the artificial ice rinks elsewhere, it is better than the artificial ice rinks elsewhere." At that time, the Beihai Ice Rink actually had a special program, that is, the ice masquerade; Hu Yepin described this in detail in the book "To Moscow": "There is no ice skater who does not make a special gesture." Many women have become men in disguise: some as a general, some as a beggar, some as an English gentleman. Men, but feminine: some dressed as an old woman, some dressed as a dancer, some dressed as a French fashionable lady, some dressed as an old-fashioned middle-aged wife. Many people are also interested in other animals and plants, so there is a paper paste of a willow tree, a tiger, a pigeon, a deer, also mixed in with the people flying. ”
Xu Xiansu also mentioned in the article "Remembering Mr. Lu Xun" that when Lu Xun was still living at No. 11 Badaowan, "By chance, we also accompanied the old lady to the street... I also accompanied the old lady to the North Sea several times, ate a cold walnut kernel in Yilantang in the summer, watched a masquerade skating and ate the kind of small nest that the Empress Dowager ate in the winter, and also sat on the ice bed on the North Sea ice once. ”
Ms. Xiao Shufang was an active participant in the ice masquerade ball, and left a photo historical document, which was published in the 34th issue of the "Liangyou" pictorial in January 1929, with the picture note "Ms. Xiao Shufang, a senior student of Peking No. 1 Girls' High School Skating Costume Photography", the dress can be described as very fashionable. However, the characters of this fashionable lady are not all as foreign as herself, but still have a solid and stable academic style as the main tone, reflecting the realistic and romantic tone of pro-people and the integration of East and West, rather than "pretending" like "Skater". Whether it is "Shichahai in Winter in Beijing" with characters or "Beihai Skating" with group scenes, it has achieved relaxation and vividness; in particular, "Beihai Skating" borrows the pattern of the Qing Dynasty's "Ice Play map". And "Playing in the Snow", which appeared in the 2017 autumn auction of China Guardian, vividly expressed the childlike fun of children building snowballs, which was quite interesting as a New Year painting. In Xiao Shufang's picture, we can really feel the joy of ice and snow sports, rather than any other symbols and instructions attached.
The painter Xiao Shufang loves and is good at skating, and has painted many works with the theme of North Sea skating, reflecting the realistic and romantic tone of the fusion of Chinese and Western. The picture shows Xiao Shufang's "Shichahai in Beijing Winter" created in 1954.
Sport as a personal spiritual carrier
The 20th century was a time of rise of genres and ideas in the history of art. Andy Warhol, as the representative of the conceptualists who rose after World War II, is also a rare figure in art history today. Warhol also left a painting of ice and snow sports. This "Speed Skater" was the official poster for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. At that time, the organizers invited many well-known artists, including Andy Warhol, to co-create the "Athletes" series. Warhol made the Speed Skater into his signature colored silkscreen print and made some variations. In today's view, this pop work should be classified as a print advertising design. But at the time, it was indeed a great change in the concept of art history.
Andy M Warhol's "Speed Skater" was the official poster for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. In today's view, this pop work should be classified as a print advertising design. But at the time, it was indeed a great change in the concept of art history
In contemporary times, the forms of expressing ice and snow sports are also more diverse and free. Contemporary artist Yang Gang's "Alpine Skiing" uses the meaning of calligraphy to outline the scene where the athletes are about to make a leap, and a few strokes bring out the toughness and tension of the ink. Zhang Jian's "Hou Hai" is similar to abstract expression, and the main body of the picture is the trajectory of the ice knife left on the ice, which is quite decorative. In contrast, skaters are only embellished in pairs, which is to make the picture appear lyrical and bright, and only the curve of the ice knife hints at the heat of the ice rink. In the era of photography and digital high-definition, such works show the independent thinking and value of art.
From the "minimalist history" of ice and snow sports in art history, it can be seen that the fun brought by ice and snow sports is not only in the sports themselves, but also has a wide range of group activities, social networking, festivals and ceremonies, and even the bearing of national strength and sportsmanship. It is also one of the high-risk sports. Therefore, our reverence for this movement is not only a tribute to the spirit of sportsmanship, but also an reverence for nature and life itself.
This article was published in the special issue of Wen Wei Po and Beijing Winter Olympic Games on February 10, 2022