Ancient Chinese painting
Ancient Chinese paintings can be traced back to as early as 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, when people began to use minerals to draw simple pictures resembling animals, plants, and human beings on rocks and produce drawings of amazing designs and decorations on potteries and, later on, bronze containers. However, only a few of the works have survived over time. The earliest drawings preserved until today were produced on paper and silk, which were burial articles with a history of over 2,000 years.
As the representative of Eastern paintings, Chinese paintings greatly differ from their Western counterparts in terms of contents, forms and styles. The following will give you a more vivid picture of these exotic Chinese paintings.
Colored painting (gongbi) and
water-ink painting (xieyi)
In terms of drawing skills, Chinese paintings can be categorized into two styles: colored paintings done by professional or craftsman painters, which were dominant before the 12th century; and water-ink paintings by literati painters after the 12th century.
Also known as “fine- stroke” paintings, colored paintings feature close attention to details and fine brushwork. Thanks to mineral dyes, the original colors were fully maintained and the paintings will never fade. Colored paintings, which manifest unparalleled sublimeness, were widely welcomed among painters serving in royal courts.
On the contrary, water-ink paintings, also called “thick-stroke” paintings, are supposed to convey spiritual resonance with simple strokes and less attachment to realistic subjects. Exaggerated forms, such as generalizations and hyperboles, as well as rich imagination, are used to display the painters’ feelings.
Figure paintings, landscapes and flower-and-bird paintings
Evidences show that the earliest Chinese paintings had people as subjects, which used to enjoy a prosperous development.
Meanwhile, landscape painting maintained its dominant role in Chinese paintings because of its deep root in Chinese traditional culture. Chinese philosophers in ancient times believed in the “unity of human beings and heaven,” which means that human beings can feel nature and, therefore, should have a harmonious relationship.
Chinese painters tend to integrate their feelings and dreams into the natural scenery they are producing, which, in effect, arouses aspiration and imagination among the audience. Among paintings with flowers and grass, bamboos and rocks, birds and beasts, and worms and fish as major subjects, flower-and-bird paintings are the most viewed and admired.