Incursion, restoration, and transformation

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Chapter 26 Incursion, restoration, and
transformation The Art of later China and Korea
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Before conquering China in 1279 members of the
Yuan Dynasty were nomads known as Mongols They
dominated China until 1368.
Kublai Kahn was Genghis Khans grandson, he
brought down the last Song emperor, declared
himself emperor of China, and founded the Yuan
dynasty. The Mongols were great admirers of
Chinese art and culture, and Kublai Khan lived in
luxurious palaces.
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Huang Gongwang, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains,
China, Yuan Dynasty, 1347-1350. Section of a
hindscroll, ink on paper, 1 1 high. National
Palace, Taipei
literati Scholar-artists who emerged during
the Song dynasty. The literati painted primarily
for a small audience of their educational and
social peers, who were from prominent families
and were highly educated and steeped in
traditional Chinese culture. They cultivated
painting, calligraphy, poetry, and other arts as
a sign of social status and refined taste.
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Bamboo is a symbol of the ideal Chinese
gentleman, who bends in adversity but does not
break. Also, depicting the branches and leaves of
bamboo approximated the art of calligraphy.
Throughout Chinese history, calligraphy and
painting have been closely connected and equally
esteemed. The primary tools for writing and
drawing are the same a round tapered brush,
soot-based ink, and paper or silk. Many Chinese
paintings bear calligraphy inscriptions or
colophons. Famous poems frequently provided
subjects for paintings, and poets often composed
poems inspired by paintings. Either practice
might prompt inscriptions on art. Some address
the painted subjects, praise the paintings
quality or the painters character, explain the
circumstances of the work. Painters, inscribers
and even owners also added seal impressions in
red ink to identify themselves.
Symbolism in Chinese art Bamboo The ideal Chinese
gentleman who bends in adversity but does not
break. Dragon The emperor and yang, the Chinese
principle of active masculine energy. Phoenix Th
e empress and yin, the Chinese principle of
passive feminine energy.
Wu Zhen. Bamboo. Yüan Dyn. 1350. Album leaf, ink
on paper, 14X 19. National Palace Museum,
Taipei
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Porcelain is a fine white clay called kaolin
mixed with ground petuntse (a type of
feldspar). Porcelain is at an extremely high
temperature, well over 2000 F.
Porcelain is a technically demanding medium. True
porcelain is translucent and rings when struck.
Underglaze blue decorated temple vaseYuan
dynasty1351Percival David Foundation of Chinese
Art
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lacquer ware The sap of the Asiatic sumac tree
is heated and purified. Then the lacquer workers
mix minerals into the sap. The artisan uses a
hairbrush similar to a calligraphers or
painters brush. The lacquer goes on one layer at
a time. Then it must be dried and sanded before
another layer is applied. If there are enough
layers, it can be carved as if it were the wood
itself. Other techniques include inlaying metals
and sprinkling gold dust into still-wet lacquer.
Table with drawers, Ming dynasty, ca. 1426-1435.
Carved red lacquer on a wood core, 3' 11" long.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Ming court painters differ from that of the
literati both in purpose and in style because
court artists created portraiture of the imperial
family, as well as historical figures as
exemplars of virtue, wisdom, or heroism. They
used bright colors to focus attention on the
heroic subjects of the paintings. Literati
artists mainly created personal works, either in
the Northern (precise, academic) or Southern
(freer, subjective) styles.
Dai Jin. Fishermen. Ming Dynasty. 15th century,
Detail of hand scroll, ink and color on paper, 1
6 1/8 high. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Characteristic of the work of Dong Qichang led
critics to call him the first modernist painter
was that his flattening of the composition and
creating of highly expressive and abstract
patterns.
Dong Qichang. Autumn Mountains. Ming Dynasty.
early 17th century. Handscroll, ink on paper, 1
31/8x457/8. Cleveland Museum of Art,
Cleveland, Ohio.
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The artist who specialized in the painting of
flowers during the Ming period was Wen
Shu. Style She focuses on a few essential
elements, presented against a plain background.
She uses delicate brush strokes and a restricted
palette, contrasting the fragility of the flowers
against the solidity of the rock.
Left Rock, Tiger Lily and Orchid. Right Daylily
and Rock.
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Underglaze decorations are mineral colors applied
to the clay surface before the main firing and
then a clear glaze is applied over them. It fully
bonds to the piece in the kiln, but only a few
colors are possible because the raw materials
must withstand the heat. Overglaze colors, or
enamels, are produced when decorators paint on
top of the glaze after the work has been fired.
They fuse to the glazed surface in an additional
firing at a much lower temperature. They allow a
much brighter palette, but they do not have the
durability of underglaze.
Dish with Lobed Rim, Qing Dynasty, 1700.
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The creative use of the single brushstroke or
primordial line was advocated by the Qing
painter Shitao.
Shitao, Man in a House beneath a Cliff, Qing
Dynasty, late 17th century. Album leaf, ink and
colors on paper, 9 ½ x 11. C.C. Wang Collection,
New York
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Guiseppe Castiglione An Italian Jesuit
missionary at the Qing court. He used a hybrid
Italian-Chinese style. Features of his work
that is distinctly European Three-dimensional
volumes and a single source of light that creates
consistent shadows. Features he adopted from
the Chinese literati painter include Compositio
n the overhanging tree and the red seal and
subject traditional Chinese symbols, the eagle,
the pine tree, the rocks, and the red
mushroomlike plants.
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Courtyard house interior veranda. Wuxi. China
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The traditional Chinese garden is suppose to
replicate the irregularities of uncultivated
nature. Its purpose is to to encourage
wandering through ever-changing vistas of
carefully contrived visual surprises. They were
the pleasure retreats of high officials and the
landed gentry, sanctuaries where the wealthy
could commune with nature in all its
representative forms and as an ever-changing and
boundless presence.
Wangshi Yuan (Garden of the Master of the Fishing
Nets). Pavilion. and pool. Suzhou
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Liu Yuan (Lingering Garden). Guanyun
(Cloud-Capped Peak). Suzhou
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Aerial view of the Forbidden City, Beijing,
China, Ming dynasty, 15th century and later.
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Imperial Palace Forbidden City
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Huang Binhong. Recluse Dwelling on Xixia
Mountain. 1954 .Hanging scroll. ink and color on
paper. 47 1/2 x 23 1/2. Metropolitan Museum of
Art. New York City
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YE YUSHAN and others, Rent Collection Courtyard
(detail of larger tableau), Dayi, Sichuan
Province, China, 1965. Clay, approx. 100 yards
long with life-size figures.
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In A Book from Heaven the twentieth century
artist Xu Bing attempted to blend A critique of
the meaninglessness of contemporary political
language with a commentary on the illegibility of
the past.
XU BING, A Book from Heaven, 1988. Installation
at Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of
Wisconsin, Madison, 1991. Movable-type prints and
books.
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The Nandeamun (gateway) into Seoul was intended
to symbolize the rulers authority, represented
in the imposing strength of its stone foundation
and the sophistication of its intricately
bracketed wooden superstructure.
The Chosen Dynasty ruled in Seoul from 1392-1910.
Nandaemun. Seoul. Choson Dyn. first built in
1398. Korea. Choson dynasty (1392-1910). Seoul.
Korea
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true view painting An actual scene, depicted
with brushstrokes that mimic the actual
appearance of forms.
CHONG SON, Kumgang Mountains, Choson dynasty,
1734. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, 4'
3 1/2" x 1' 11 1/4". Hoam Art Museum, Kyunggi-Do.
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Yi Chae-gwan. Portrait of Kang Yi-o. Choson.
early 19thc. Korea. Choson dynasty (1392-1910).
Hanging scroll. ink and colors on silk. 25 high
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The Abstract Expressionist movement and Morris
Louis was a Western influence in the work of Song
Su-Nam. Eastern influence Ink on paper, such
as that used by East Asian literati.
SONG SU-NAM, Summer Trees, 1983. Ink on paper, 2'
1 5/8" high. British Museum, London.
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Compare the style of the Yuan painters shown on
FIGS. 26-1 and 2 with that earlier painters like
Fan Kuan (FIG. 7-19) and Ma Yuan (FIG. 7-24) What
similarities and what differences do you see?
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Huang Gongwang
Fan Kuan Travelers Among Mountains and
Streams Northern Song Period
Wu Zhen
Ma Yuan On a Mountain Path in Spring Southern
Song period
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Compare the structure of the Forbidden City shown
on FIG. 26-5 with Louis XIVs Palace of
Versailles (FIG. 24-69). What features do they
share? In what way do the structures reflect the
political philosophies of their creators?
Palace of Versailles
Imperial Palace Forbidden City
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