Handscroll qiu ying section

Only when he saw her did he realize that she was the most beautiful of them all. Infuriated, he had the artist executed. Trees and rocks decorate and punctuate the garden scenery of the lavish palace architecture. In addition to groups of beauties, some of them are shown in leisure activities associated with the literati, such as enjoying the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting as well as appreciating antiquities and flowers.

Make a free website with Yola. More typically, however, a handscroll would be a single continuous painting. Handscrolls were not meant to be displayed all at once, the way they are commonly presented today in museums. Rather, they were unrolled only occasionally, to be savored in much the same spirit as we might view a favorite film.

Placing the scroll on a flat surface such as a table, a viewer would unroll it a foot or two at a time, moving gradually through the entire scroll from right to left, lingering over favorite details. The scroll was then rolled up and returned to its box until the next viewing. Like handscrolls, hanging scrolls were not displayed permanently but were taken out for a limited time: a day, a week, a season.

Unlike a handscroll, however, the painting on a hanging scroll was viewed as a whole—unrolled and hung on a wall, with the roller at the lower end acting as a weight to help the scroll hang flat. Although some hanging scrolls are quite large, they are still fundamentally intimate works, not intended for display in a public place. Creating a scroll was a time-consuming and exacting process accomplished by a professional mounter.

The painting was first backed with paper to strengthen it. Next, strips of paper-backed silk were pasted to the top, bottom, and sides, framing the painting on all four sides. Additional silk pieces were added to extend the scroll horizontally or vertically, depending on the format. The assembled scroll was then backed again with paper and fitted with a half-round dowel, or wooden rod, at the top of a hanging scroll or on the right end of a handscroll, with ribbons for hanging and tying, and with a wooden roller at the other end.

Hanging scrolls were often fashioned from several patterns of silk, and a variety of piecing formats were developed and codified. A scroll would be remounted periodically to better preserve it, and colophons and inscriptions would be preserved in each remounting. Seals added another layer of interest. A treasured scroll often bears not only the seal of its maker but also those of collectors and admirers through the centuries.

The cities of the south were becoming wealthy, and newly rich merchants collected paintings, antiques, and art objects. In such a setting, the decorative arts thrived. Its translucent purity reminded him of the smooth whiteness of the cowry shell, porcellana in Italian. Porcelain is made from kaolin, an extremely refined white clay, and petuntse, a variety of the mineral feldspar.

Porcelaneous stoneware, fired at lower temperatures, was known in China by the seventh century, but true porcelain was perfected during the Song dynasty. To create blue-and-white porcelain such as the flask in figure , blue pigment was made from cobalt oxide, finely ground and mixed with water. The decoration was painted directly onto the unfired porcelain vessel, then a layer of clear glaze was applied over it.

In this technique, known as underglaze painting, the pattern is painted beneath the glaze. After firing, the piece emerged from the kiln with a clear blue design set sharply against a snowy white background. Entranced with the exquisite properties of porcelain, European potters tried for centuries to duplicate it. The technique was finally discovered in by Johann Friedrich Bottger in Dresden, Germany, who tried—but failed—to keep it a secret.

The imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi Province, became the most renowned center for porcelain not only in China, but in all the world. At the northern end stood a walled imperial complex. Porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue. Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Dragons have featured prominently in Chinese folklore from earliest times—Neolithic examples have been found painted on pottery and carved in jade.

In Bronze Age China, dragons came to be associated with powerful and sudden manifestations of nature, such as wind, thunder, and lightning. At the same time, dragons became associated with superior beings such as virtuous rulers and sages. Dragon sightings were duly recorded and considered auspicious. Yet even the Son of Heaven could not monopolize the dragon.

During the Tang and Song dynasties the practice arose of painting pictures of dragons to pray for rain, and for Chan Zen Buddhists, the dragon was a symbol of sudden enlightenment. Ming dynasty, Section of a handscroll with ink and color on silk. Chinese lived in the southern third of the city. Later, Ming and Qing emperors preserved this division, with officials living in the northern or Inner City and commoners living in the southern or Outer City.

The third Ming emperor, Yongle ruled — , rebuilt the Forbidden City as we see it today. The approach was impressive. Visitors entered through the Meridian Gate, a monumental complex with perpendicular side wings see fig.

Handscroll qiu ying section

After passing through the Meridian Gate, visitors encountered a broad courtyard crossed by a bow-shaped waterway spanned by five arched marble bridges. At the opposite end of this courtyard is the Gate of Supreme Harmony, opening onto an even larger courtyard that houses three ceremonial halls raised on a broad platform. First is the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where, on the most important state occasions, the emperor sat on his throne, facing south.

Mostly Ming dynasty. View from the southwest. One of the major literati painters from the Ming period is Shen Zhou — , who had no desire to enter government service and spent most of his life in Suzhou. Although the style of the painting recalls the freedom and simplicity of Ni Zan see fig. Travelers might be seen scuttling along a narrow path by a stream, while overhead towered mountains whose peaks conversed with the clouds and whose heights were inaccessible.

In figure the poet has climbed the mountain and dominates the landscape. Even the clouds are beneath him. Before his gaze, a poem hangs in the air, as though he were projecting his thoughts. Alone, leaning on my cane, I gaze intently at the scene, And feel like answering the murmuring brook with the music of my flute. Shen Zhou composed the poem and wrote the inscription at the time he painted the album.

The painting visualizes Ming philosophy, which held that the mind, not the physical world, was the basis for reality. With its tight synthesis of poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and with its harmony of mind and landscape, Poet on a Mountaintop represents the essence of Ming literati painting. Ming dynasty, c. Ming dynasty, early 16th century.

Early in the sixteenth century, an official in Beijing, frustrated after serving in the capital for many years without promotion, returned home. He called his retreat the Garden of the Cessation of Official Life to indicate that he had exchanged his career as a bureaucrat for a life of leisure. By leisure, he meant that he could now dedicate himself to calligraphy, poetry, and painting, the three arts dear to scholars in China.

Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur. Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, See on MetPublications. Finches and bamboo Emperor Huizong. Narcissus Zhao Mengjian. Summer Mountains Attributed to Qu Ding. Six Horses Unidentified artists. Wang Xizhi watching geese Qian Xuan. Night-Shining White Han Gan.

Fisherman Wu Zhen.