Chinese the change of object painting, I think it is of great research value. The deeper the research, the more interesting it becomes. Figure painting is the most developed in painting, because it is most closely related to personnel.
▲Warring States figure dragon and phoenix painting
Chinese figure paintings existed three generations ago. The image of King Wuding of Yin is in the engraving of Fu Shu, and it can be seen that the figure paintings of the three generations have become slightly larger. However, if the image of his picture is, it is difficult for us to study it in depth.
Since the Han Dynasty, figure painting has gradually flourished.
Today, we will talk about the changes in figure painting from the Han and Tang Dynasties to modern figure paintings—the changes in nature and the changes in painting methods.
A Brief History of Chinese Painting
Written by Chen Shizeng
Pricing: 98.00
China Pictorial Publishing House
Publication date: 2022.3
In ancient times, many people were painted, loyal and filial, and chaotic thieves, so they meant rewarding good and punishing evil, while Kuang ethics was not caught. It makes people see the portrait of the loyal servant and filial piety, which arouses the concept of worship and imitation; when he sees the portrait of the thief of the chaotic courtier, he gives birth to the concept of disgust and fear.
From the three generations to the two Han Dynasties, they all belong to this category - ethical figure painting.
From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties, Buddhism flowed into China, and Buddhist painting arose. Solemn Buddha statues, on various stones, for worship. After the study of Huang Lao's emptiness, the nature of religious figure painting expanded to become a Taoist painting - this is a religious figure painting.
▲ Tang Wu Daozi"Guanyin Bodhisattva Statue Rubbing"
After the Song Dynasty, figure painting changed to the nature of appreciation, and it was pleasing to the eye for people to be entertained - this is a figure painting for appreciation.
The above is a simple narrative of the changes in the nature of figure painting in advance.
▲Song Su Hanchen's "Autumn Garden Drama Baby Picture"
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty collected many ghost gods in the Ganlu Hall, and the statues of the loyal servants and filial pieties were in the Mingguang Hall. When he arrived at Emperor Xuan, he drew huo guang, Zhang Anshi, Liu De, Su Wu and other eleven heroes in the Qilin Pavilion, and the ghosts and gods were strange and strange like yu Mingguang Hall.
As for Emperor Yuan, because he had many harems, he was not common, but mao longevity figures, according to the picture, it can be seen that the figure painting at that time was very progressive. In addition to Mao Yanshou, there were also famous painters such as Chen Chang, Liu Bai, Gong Kuan, Yang Wang, and Fan Qing, and it can be seen that there was no shortage of famous people in figure painting at that time.
After the Han Dynasty, there were twenty-eight people such as deng yu and other heroes, and the twenty-eight generals of the Ming Emperor Tu were like the Nangong Yuntai, and their intention was also to commend their loyalty. This is all imperial thought.
▲ Deng Yu
Emperor Ming once dreamed of seeing a Buddha statue, and he sent Cai Yan on an envoy to the Western Regions to obtain the Forty-two Chapters Sutra and the statue of Shakya because of the construction of the White Horse Temple. As a result, Buddhism flourished, and Buddhist paintings flourished. At that time, although Buddhist paintings were popular, there were also many statues of Confucius and his seventy-two disciples who were proficient in the six arts.
Figure painting in the Eastern Han Dynasty was especially developed compared with the Western Han Dynasty. Usual figure paintings are engraved on the stone walls of the palaces and cannot be moved.
The portraits of the Han Dynasty have survived to the present, and the following are the most famous: jiaxiang wuliang ancestral portrait (emperor, hero, story), Feicheng Xiaoshantang portrait (character), Henan Songshan Sanque (custom), Shandong Yukou Confucius see Laozi statue (there is also a frame in Jiangsu Baoying) and Zhou Gong, Zhao Gong fu wang statue. In addition, there are still portraits of Yang Sanlao canteens. It's a small piece. Han Dynasty figure painting, the brushwork is poor and not exquisite. The above-mentioned figure paintings of the Han Dynasty.
▲Jiaxiang Wuliang Ancestral Hall portrait rubbing
By the time of the Six Dynasties of Wei and Jin, figure painting gradually improved.
At that time, there were many specialized painters, the most famous of which were Cao Buxing (Yizuo Fuxing, Three Kingdoms), Gu Kaizhi (Jin), Lu Tanwei (Song), and Zhang Shengxuan (Liang), most of whom were born in the south.
Cao Buxing learned to paint from foreign monks and was very influenced by foreign painting. He has layers of strengths, large figure paintings, he can do it in an instant, and the various parts of the body can be placed appropriately, without any mistakes.
Gu Hutou (i.e. Kaizhi) of the Jin Dynasty was also a painter known for his good painting of figures.
He has a story: He was a poor man, and the monk made a connection with him, so he painted a Buddha statue for the monk on the wall of the temple and asked the monk to sell it to people. Later, the sight was blocked, and the monk received a huge amount of money. The name of Gu's painting is so big that it can be imagined.
▲Eastern Jin Dynasty Gu Kaizhi's "Roselle FuTu Scroll" (partial)
During the Southern Dynasty, Lu Tanwei's figure paintings were more distinctive than before. His six paintings for the Sheikh can be regarded as ascending to the Olympic Church.
The six painting methods proposed by Sheikh are vivid qi rhyme, bone method with pen, object pictogram, color with class, copying and writing, and operating position. Sheikh this person, the figure painting is also very famous, after Gu Hutou, count him as a time.
Chinese figure painting has a bone method, a pen and ink backbone, unlike today's watercolor painting, but take its rich ecology to fix the product. However, Zhang Shengxuan, who was good at painting Buddha statues in Liang Dynasty, changed his physique and created no bone method.
▲Nanliang Zhang Shengxuan "Fish Basket Guanyin Diagram"
The boneless method, also known as the dyeing method, is dyed in five colors, and those who do not see the handwriting are cloth portraits, without double hooks, which is the same as the Western watercolor painting method. He came to this method after learning The Buddha paintings of the western regions of India.
The Northern Qi figure painter Cao Zhongda, the figure he painted, his body was thick and stacked, and his clothes were tight and narrow, and posterity called him Cao Yi out of the water. The lines he draws, without thickness, are called gossamer gossamer drawings, also known as iron wire drawings. The gossamer stroke pen is relatively weak, and the wire stroke is relatively strong.
▲Northern Qi Yang Zihua's "Northern Qi School Book Map"
The various bodies of the text are from the seal to the true, the line, and the grass, and the seal book is not thick and thin, and the book is divided into some thicknesses, and the letter is more and more obvious. The same is true of variations of the text, and the same is true of the drawing method. Therefore, the previous painting method of tang was no thick and thin high ancient gossamer drawing; after the Tang, this method was broken.
The pomp and circumstance of the characters in the early Tang Dynasty was similar to that of the Six Dynasties era. However, at this time, landscape and grass painting were quite developed, so the figures were painted, adding the ration of landscapes, grass and trees, terraces, and pavilions. This was already popular in the Six Dynasties era, and by the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was even more beneficial than before.
At that time, in addition to the figure painters, there were also painters of landscapes, birds and animals, grasses and insects on the side, which served as the supporting scenery.
▲Sui Zhan Ziqian "You Chun Tu" (partial)
The painting method of figure painting in the early Tang Dynasty is the same as that of the Six Dynasties era. In the Middle Tang Dynasty, things changed. The portrait of Tang Shan is Wu Daozi, who is an innovator of painting. He changed the brushwork of the high-archaic gossamer strokes to thick and thin, with bumps and bumps—this is called orchid leaf drawing, olive drawing, or needle rattail drawing.
He painted figures with rounded strokes and fluttering clothes, which posterity called Wu Dai Dangfeng. It is exactly the opposite of Cao Yi out of the water. He not only changed the previous brushwork, but also changed the method of coloring. Probably the former color was influenced by Indian paintings, and the one was heavy, but he changed to a pale color, called Wu Costume.
Since then, the painting has been divided into two schools: one for the Cao school and the other for the Wu school. Until now, the painters have not been among these two schools.
▲ Tang Wu Daozi's "Sending Son Heavenly King Diagram" (partial)
Changes in the character screen. Before the Tang and Song dynasties, both men and women, the cheeks were plump, and Pang Er was like a square, inseparable from the adjective of the four words of "Lingli Fengfei". After the Ming Dynasty, it gradually changed, the cheeks were thin and pretty, and Pang Er was like a triangle.
The clothes of the figure paintings before tang were fengye, and after Tang, they were thin and narrow. In the past, it was a lady who was painted, and now it is a beauty. The previous posture was dignified and childish, but the current posture is light, petite, and feminine. In the past, figure paintings, ugly and old, must be true; now the figure paintings, focusing on the pleasing beauty of the man, have lost the true meaning of art.
▲ Tang Zhou Fang's "Picture Scroll of the Lady of the Hairpin Flower" (partial)
Now I'm going to talk about the changes in Buddhist painting. Buddhist painting flourished between the Six Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, and by the Song Dynasty, the influence of religion gradually declined; the Zen sect of Su Dongpo worship prevailed, so the practice of Buddha interpretation was rare, and the Buddha statues depicted at that time also changed their solemn attitude.
From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, the temple offers portraits of the arhat ancestors and senior monks, and the reality is still the same, and the portraits of solemn Buddhas are very rare.
The flourishing period of Chinese Buddhist painting can be said to have ended in the Tang Dynasty. Because the emperor worshipped the Buddha, the people followed, and The Buddha painting became popular. Therefore, the change of thought affects the rise and fall of art to a huge and large extent.
▲Song Liu Songnian's "Luohan Diagram"
Today, there are still many Buddhist paintings carved on the stone in the western region, and many Japanese archaeologists have gone there to transport the carved stones back to their home countries for printing.
The people who painted Buddha statues in the Qing Dynasty had the so-called retro school, such as Chen Laolian and Cui Qingke, and the Buddha statues they made were rarely welcomed by society; Wang Xiaomei and Gu Ximei of the Wu school, who painted very elegant and beautiful, were rewarded by ordinary people.
▲Ming Chen Laolian's Statue of Shakyamuni
Now some people say that Western painting is progressive, and Chinese painting is not progressive, but I say that Chinese painting is progressive. From the Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties, the speed of progress has been as mentioned above; from the Six Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there are also progresses that can be seen; but from the Song Dynasty to the modern era, there has been little progress to speak of.
However, we cannot say that Chinese painting is not progressive by taking the pause of the Song Dynasty for hundreds of years to the present; for example, if someone has walked many roads and stopped in the middle, we cannot say that he cannot walk with his temporary stop. Can't Anzhi Chinese painting improve again in the near future?
That's why I say that Chinese painting is progressive; but whether Chinese painting is progressing at present is still difficult to answer realistically.