Along The River During The Qingming Festival Analysis

This painting is from the Ming Dynasty, and very clearly depicts and captures the essence of The Southern School, or Literati painters.

China had not been unified in over 300 years before Genghis Khan’s grandson, Kublai Khan conquered it. With Kublai as emperor, China flourished. The military had use with the Mongols, and the craftsmen were almost worked too much, for the Mongols were fascinated by these beautiful paintings, sculptures, and trinkets. They united china under the Mongol flag and bestowed a golden age on China, promoting trade and unity.(Chapter 12)

The Tang and Song dynasties have been regarded as the “golden age” of arts and literature, setting the bar high for poetry, landscape painting, and ceramics. When international merchants brought their poetry, the Chinese invention of paper and block printing made poetry widely available in the Tang dynasty. They also invented new styles of ceramics and metalwork, influenced by

Tao Qian, also known as Tao Yuan-ming, was a Chinese poet of the Six Dynasties period. Tao was well versed in the classics of Confucianism and Daoism, which is evident in his poetry. However, he wasn’t known for the extent of his knowledge but for his distinctive voice as a poet of transition and reclusion. Throughout his life, he held and resigned several minor posts before his ultimate decision to renounce public life and “return to his gardens and fields” (Owen 1996, 312). As the founder of the poetry of “fields and gardens,” Tao’s writing revolves around nature as a philosophy and as a way of life that embodies the simplicity of living in recluse, away from the chaos of high society. He uses the philosophy of nature not only to retell

According to ancient Chinese historian, Sima Qian, the Han had “lopped off the harsh corners of the Qin code and retreated to an easy roundness, whittled away the embellishments, and achieved simplicity” . Thus, expression of ideas and cultivation of creativity was possible enabling art and literature to flourish. Increased interest in poetry led to a lyrical essay style called “Fu” to become the wrsiting norm of the Han dynasty to the Song dynasty (960–1279). Lacquer work was perfected, porcelain ceramics and pottery were often produced and used as funerary art. Often daily lives of the Chinese, entertainers and animals were depicted in these artworks.

The Mingqi (standing dog) is earthenware, terracotta, or a fired clay that is porous. This type of ceramic results in an earth tone of orange and brown and the lower half of the artwork shows the original hue of the terracotta. Revealed because of deterioration, the vibrant orange creates a contrast of color to the dull green of the glaze. Terracotta can be without glaze but this Han artist finalized the work in glaze and covered the original coloration with a more impacting

In the recent past, people abandoned the countryside to live in the urban areas (Western Governors University, 2017). In fact, most of the people in the developed countries are unaware of how the countryside looks like. Due to development and pollution, the natural sceneries are dying slowly. In this regard, the Hay Wain is important in today’s world as it helps the generations that does not understand the countryside. The art allows the current generation to know how nature looked like in the early 19th century. Apart from learning, the art is important in urging the current generation to protect the environment and be mindful of the natural habitats. This is because a look at the art makes one admire to have such serene environment around them and as such is motivated to protect the environment around

After the fall of Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty scholar-officials sought to re-discover the self through the paintings of Northern Song Dynasty painters, such as Su Shi, define the desire of scholar-officials to find peace and harmony in the rural retreat from urban life at the royal court. For instance, Su Shi’s “Ancient tree and Rock” is a famous work of the Northern Song period, which breaks with academic or courtly traditions in art by applying simple brush strokes as a form of silent dissent against the authority of the Emperor. In this context, the concealed dissent of Su Shi’s painting is defined in the resistance to

As the empire becomes stabilized and the number of people dying from famine decreases, Ming Dynasty reached a big advance in expression in art. In the book Masterworks of Ming and Qing Painting from the Forbidden City, it is said that “The reigns of the Hongwu, Yongle and Xuande emperors were relatively strong and well-organized, supported by a strong agricultural base in the south below the Yangtze river, and by a particularly large and efficient merchant fleet

The first thing that came to my mind when I discovered this paint was the word massive. It was incredible how the size of this painting became a way to present the art work. While looking at the art work standing far way, I was captured by not the scenery of the mountain and garden, but the use of white background, the emptiness that it bring out. Just like Shen Zhou’s Poet on a Mountaintop, that uses lines and white background to create sense of cloud flowing in the sky. Although, Yuan Jiang uses something that Shen Zhou did use on his painting, something that I find really magnificent, the use of shadow. Unlike those lines that define clouds in Poet on a Mountaintop, Yuan Jiang uses something similar to Dong Qichang’s The Qingbian Mountains, which white out in between mountain, create sense of cloud. By doing so, it is far more realistic compare to just use of line. Though, Yuan Jiang did not just white out the background,

His name is Ming Xu. Xu often uses vibrant colors in his photographs, giving serious issues mellower sub-tones. Xu’s works show the steep dichotomies found in the day-to-day life of urban China: his photographs include pictures of happy children next to large heaps of refuse, and thought-provoking images of large vacant lots where relocated houses once stood, which are, then, contrasted with tightly packed rows of high-rises in the distant skyline. Xu’s works illustrate the issues of an urbanizing China, such as the encroachment of agricultural lands by urban construction and mass urban migration. Xu is both critical of these changes yet also nostalgic for those remnants of an older

As one of the ancient civilization, the Chinese history could trace back to five millennium years ago. Along with the continuous development of the Chinese society, the artistic and cultural achievements also simultaneously progressed. Bowser Museum exhibits a Chinese collection that portrays the evolution of Chinese art and culture. From the dawn of Chinese civilization Neolithic period to the last imperial Qing dynasty before the Republic of China. Throughout the progress, the Chinese art is continuously adapting to the changing society and combining its cultures to produce various art forms. In this exhibition, each symbol in each artwork is associated with special meaning behind and to reflect some phenomenon of personality or the

Yellow symbolized royalty and power of the throne, red is the Chinese national color and represents happiness, beauty, success and good fortune, and the green symbolizes money. After coloring the dragon, I changed the outline of the dragon of each area matches the shade of the dragon rather than leaving the outline as black. The first draft of the baby that she was holding weren’t in a right proportion. So I had to change on how the baby looked like, more proportion and a balance all together. I colored in the baby first before the dress of the woman because I wanted to work around the color of the dragon and the baby to see what color scheme would work for the dress.

The Yellow River was the source of many helpful things that improved the way China was run. The north and south of China had different environments, but rice was produced well in the south, so it led to China having a great population in the south. The Shang Period was successful because it was influenced by a warrior aristocracy, used phonetic symbols to communicate, and had skilled artisans. The Zhou Period was the longest lasting dynasty in China, and it consumed of many things such as the Mandate of Heaven, a set of rules the Zhou lived by, and Legalism, which was a set of demanding laws with cruel punishments. The Chinese lived a belief in Confucianism, teachings with the belief of benevolence towards all humans, and Daoism, teachings

A landscape painter “tended to be a recluse, an individualist, and a Daoist (Morton and Lewis 2005).” These artists thought of landscape painting as the “grandest and most satisfying way to represent nature as a whole, to feel a sense of communion with nature, and to know oneself to be part of an orderly cosmos (Morton and Lewis 2005).” Thus, one can see the implications of landscape painting lay not just in its beauty and simplicity, but also in its spiritual connection with Nature, and thus had wide appeal. The point of view in landscape painting was also of paramount importance. The Chinese artists understood that Western artists took in scenes from five or six feet from the ground. Chinese artists worked from a raised viewpoint, so that they are not bogged done by small details in the front and get a better sense of the whole scene (Morton and Lewis 2005). Every part of the image that is created has its own innate interest, and yet it all comes together and works well as a whole (Morton and Lewis 2005). It is clear that landscape painting was a cherished and important art form in Song Dynasty culture.