Chinese Painting

Traditional Chinese painting dates back to the Neolithic Age about 6,000 years ago. The excavated colored pottery with painted human faces, fish, deer and frogs indicates that the Chinese began painting as far back as the Neolithic Age. Over the centuries, the growth of Chinese painting inevitably reflected the change of time and social conditions.

Generally speaking, works dating from before the Tang dynasty are mainly line drawings of people engaged in various activities; this was the”golden age”of human figure drawing.

By the mid-Tang dynasty, landscape and flower-and-bird paintings began their rise to prominence. Paintings of mountains, forests, fields, and gardens have the ability to transport one away from the vexations of the material world into a peaceful, carefree realm. Because of this, landscape paintings have always been highly regarded by China’s literati and officialdom.

The flowers, grass, trees, stones, and birds and other animals depicted in the lively and energetic flower-and-bird paintings are also widely admired. Thus the landscape and flower-and-bird types of painting, together with the earlierhuman figure painting, comprise the three main categories of traditional Chinese painting.

hancheng

See author's posts