The beauty of women in classic paintings

"Female Shi ZhenTu", "Lady Yu Guo's You Chun Tu", "Han Palace Chun Xiao Tu"... The female figures in many national treasure-level paintings reflect the aesthetics of different eras.

How have the female figures in Chinese paintings undergone over the centuries? Chen Lusheng, an art historian and former deputy director of the National Museum of China, told the story.

Author: Chen Lusheng

Four manifestations of ancient women

A history of Chinese painting from ancient times to the present is inseparable from the expression of female figures. For the representation of female figures, they have different social functions in various historical periods. The aesthetic significance associated with the female image, and the specific image shaping, has become one of the characteristics of Chinese painting that is different from Western painting, and the unique female paintings in Chinese painting can basically explain this feature.

Western paintings include famous works such as "Mona Lisa" and "The Girl with Pearl Earrings", while Chinese female paintings as a whole, like Chinese landscape paintings, integrate Chinese paintings with Chinese culture through the cultural characteristics expressed by paintings, showing the differences with Western culture.

In the history of ancient Chinese painting, female figures have appeared in the Neolithic Age. In addition to the "Dance Pattern Basin" unearthed in Qinghai, there are also some works that reflect female characteristics or female figures, which are important physical materials for the study of the history of women's images today.

Gu Hongzhong's "Han Xizai's Night Feast" (partial) collection of the Palace Museum

As far as the history of Chinese painting is concerned, the pictorial representation of women is nothing more than the following four aspects, which all reflect the status of women in agricultural civilization or feudal society.

The first is a work that expresses the leisure life of upper-class women like the Tang Dynasty's "Lady You Chun Tu" and "Lady Of the Hairpin Flower", and the special makeup in the picture reflects the grace and magnificence of women and the beauty of a specific era.

The second is to show women's works in production and life like the Tang Dynasty's "Trick Drawing". As early as the Han Dynasty," there was actually such a performance in the "Kitchen Map".

The third is the more common works that express hedonistic life in Han Dynasty portraits, such as music and dance, acrobatics, etc. The "Han Xizai Night Feast" in the Five Dynasties Gu Hong also has a very vivid depiction, while the Ming Dynasty painter Qiu Ying used the "Spring Dawn Map of the Han Palace" to express a richer and more comprehensive life of women in the palace, including dressing, watering, folding branches, flower arrangement, breeding, singing, singing, hoop playing, chess, reading, fighting grass, mirroring, viewing, images, playing babies, food delivery, waving fans, etc., covering almost all the life content associated with women.

The fourth is works that express feelings of longing, such as Gu Kaizhi's "Luoshen Futu", as well as images with the theme of returning or sending each other, such as Wen Zhengming's "Xiangjun Xiang Lady Diagram", Fu Baoshi's "Xiang Lady", etc., in which the female image is as beautiful as described in literature.

Modern women in ads

There is no doubt that the above four aspects of women's work essentially reflect a social relationship dominated by men. Although there were also heroes like Mulan among ancient women, in the history of ancient painting, female figures were not as common and diverse as men. Most of the ancient women were like the "opening door ladies" commonly appeared in the Han Dynasty images, staying at home and staying in the deep boudoir, which was a kind of social existence within the family.

The various representations of women in ancient painting can ultimately be attributed to the content expressed in Gu Kaizhi's "Female History Proverbs" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This is a concrete portrayal of the function of traditional painting "enlightenment, helping people", whether it is Feng Yuan's body to block bears and protect the Han Yuan Emperor, or Ban Jieyu's refusal to join the Han Cheng Emperor, it is all through images to establish and popularize a social norm. There is a woman in the "Female History Proverbs" who looks in the mirror, Zhang Hua wrote: "People know how to cultivate their appearance, and Mo knows how to decorate their sex." ”

In the development of the history of Chinese painting, such a special category of female painting has emerged. Although women's painting cannot be compared with the development trend of landscape painting, flower and bird painting and literati painting, the specific content carried by women in art is still a part of the history of Chinese painting that cannot be ignored.

In the 20th century, with the development of society and the establishment of modern lifestyles, especially in the process of commercial social development, modern women appeared in many advertising paintings during the Republic of China period.

In the advertising painting of the first half of the 20th century, the female image is very common, which can be said to be a way of the modernization and development of ancient female painting, of course, it also includes many expressions in modern New Year paintings. The painter does his best to express the modern image associated with society and the femininity of women, in addition to the commercial expression, but also reflects the change of aesthetic trends. The vast majority of female figures in the public communication system in this period are attached to advertising paintings and carry special social functions, and their aesthetic significance is expressed in the aesthetic taste of society as a whole.

"Flower girl like a flower"

Since the New Culture Movement, on campus, on the street, new women have become a symbol of the new culture. In 1926, during the March 18 Massacre, Liu Hezhen, a 22-year-old leader of the Beijing student movement, was killed. On March 25, after attending the memorial service for Liu Hezhen and Yang Dequn, Lu Xun wrote "Remembering Liu Hezhenjun" to remember this "kind student who always smiled." In 1956, the painter Jiang Zhaohe created "In Memory of Liu Hezhen" with the theme of Lu Xun's writing to mourn the murdered student Liu Hezhen. It can be said that this is another masterpiece of his representation of women after "The Picture of the Displaced Person".

Jiang Zhaohe is a painter who truly represents women from the perspective of art, and reflects society and the times through women. The women in his writings reflected the social conditions during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and were one of the artistic forces that could most impress people and inspire the people's determination to resist Japan. Jiang Zhaohe's most representative work is "Map of displaced people", those ordinary women in the picture reflect the disasters and social problems of the country, and the humanity revealed by it is publicized through painting, and also reflects the unique social function of painting in that era, thus changing the state of "art for art' sake" of some artists at that time and entering the fundamental change of "art for life".

In 1937 and 1948, Jiang Zhaohe created two paintings of "The Flower Girl". The 1937 painting is titled: "The flower seller is like a flower, and the king pities her no." And in 1948, the painting was titled: "A basket of spring colors sold all over the world." "If 1937's 'Flower Girl' was a mercy in the normal state of the city, then 1948's 'Flower Girl' was what was usually seen in that era, and the thin flower girl was the epitome of the suffering of ordinary people.

Jiang Zhaohe's "Selling Son Diagram" (1939) is inspired by the floods of that year, and the picture shows a mother sitting on the ground with a sad face holding a young child in her arms, staring at her eldest son who is about to leave, and admonishing: "This trip must be cherished, no more than Ah Niang's side." Qi Baishi's inscription for Jiang Zhaohe's Album in 1941 reads: "Selling three-foot paintings overwhelms the people who borrow mountains." Before that, Jiang Zhaohe also painted "After the Bombing" (also known as "Aftermath of the Disaster" and "After the War"), showing the scene of the corpses scattered across the field after the Japanese bombing and the mother who lost her daughter crying.

Jiang Zhaohe and the women at the grassroots level of society are no longer modern girls in the light of red wine. The painter uses these pitiable female figures to reflect the disaster, showing social identity in the context, and its awakening power completely transcends the meaning of aesthetics.

Don't let the eyebrows be shaved

After the founding of New China, women occupied an important position in the history of painting, becoming a bright spot in the history of new Chinese painting and an important fulcrum for expressing the characteristics of the new Chinese era.

The painter Dong Xiwen's "The Transformation of the Thousand Years of Land" (oil painting, 1963) shows the large-scale development, production and construction that began in the context of the peaceful liberation of Tibet against the background of the snowy mountains of the plateau.

In the creation of new Chinese art, the performance of the heroes of the towel has become an important part of the expression of revolutionary history, and has produced works that have influenced generations. The female heroes who appear in the paintings include Xiang Jingyu, Yang Kaihui, Zhao Yiman, Liu Hulan, Jiang Zhujun, and the "Eight Women Throwing themselves into the river". Among them, Wang Shenglie's Chinese painting "Eight Women Throwing the River" and Feng Faqi's oil painting "Liu Hulan On Righteousness" are the most representative, which is a classic in the history of new Chinese art. Of course, more paintings depict nameless women, reflecting the contributions made by women in different periods to the revolutionary cause.

"Eight Women Throwing the River" is like a monument to group portraits, standing in people's hearts. As one of the representatives of the creation of revolutionary history paintings in the 1950s, it not only confronts many problems in the creation of revolutionary history paintings, but also deals with the relationship between subject matter and performance very well, and is solemn and vivid in the combination of characters, dynamic presentation and image shaping. At the same time, the painter submitted a successful answer sheet in the mission of transforming Chinese painting - traditional Chinese ink painting can also express major revolutionary historical themes, and can also show that tragic feeling. This is a breakthrough of the times, and it is also the creation of the times.

It can be said that the painting of women's themes in New China contributed special content to the development of New Chinese painting, which was related to the general policies of this period, the trend of social development and the status of women. In the development of history, the realistic themes they are related to the times and the corresponding forms of painting ontology have witnessed this era from all aspects - using female figures in art to show the fundamental differences between the old and new societies, and "not letting the eyebrows be shaved" is one of the important features of the new era. (Chen Lusheng)

Source: Liberation Daily