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Chinese Art Masterpieces in Print: History, Lineage, Legacy

傳承經典: 中國古代書畫名作復刻品

Appendices

Exhibited Artists found in Gu Shi Huapu

Terms and Concepts

Genre, Medium, and Format

EAL Artworks on Permanent Display

Bilbiography

Chinese Dynasties


Exhibited Artists found in Gu Shi Huapu 顧氏畫譜

Song 宋: LI Gonglin 李公麟 | SU Hanchen 蘇漢臣 | XIA Gui 夏圭

Yuan 元: ZHAO Mengfu | HUANG Gongwang

Ming 明: SHEN Zhou 沈周 | WEN Zhengming 文徵明 | TANG Yin 唐寅 | QIU Ying 仇英

Terms and Concepts

Facsimile

Fac·sim·i·le noun

  an exact copy, especially of written or printed material.

Miao 描 Tracing of the original.

Mo 摹/模 Copying of the original, usually in close likeness.

Lin 臨 To make a copy of the original, from close observation.

Fang 仿 Imitation in the style or mode of the original.

Format and Medium in Chinese Visual Art

Historically, as works of art, Chinese painting and calligraphy were mainly created on silk or paper and mounted into albums or scrolls. Other kinds of format and medium, like the mural, fan, and screen were also widely used in various times, but the album leaf 冊頁, handscroll 卷, and hanging scroll 軸 were arguably the most common formats.

Among these formats, the handscroll is perhaps the most unique, as it prescribes an intimate and non-static viewing practice. The viewer holds the scroll in both hands and reveals the content about an arm’s length at a time, moving through the image as if watching a roll of film. The speed and direction of view is always in control of the viewer.

Watch a video of the handscroll here

San Jue 三絕 "Three Perfections"

Along the rise of the Wenren 文人 Literatus Class in the Song dynasty, three art forms, poetry, calligraphy, and painting became the most venerated literati arts, coined as Sanjue 三絕, the "Three Perfections". We can understand the Literati Arts as "fine art", as highly cultured intellectual pursuit for the learned.

Using the same ink, brush, and silk or paper, calligraphy and painting were seen to be of the same morphological and aesthetic roots. Poetry and painting were also connected by the literati: Northern Song scholars like SU Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) coined that "poetry is voiced painting, painting is silen poetry 詩是無聲畫 畫是有聲詩", and Emperor Huizong 宋徽宗 (ZHAO Ji 趙佶, 1082-1135)'s active promotion of the painting-poetry pairing especially entranched this artistic tradition.

In artistic creations of literati men and women of premodern China, we can frequently see the Three Perfections in combination: paintings are often inscribed with poems written in elegant calligraphy.

Genre, Medium, Format

Chinese calligraphy includes six major types of scripts: 篆 Zhuan (Seal Script), 隸 Li (Clerical Script), 楷 Kai (Regular/Standard Script), 行 Xing (Running Script), and 草 Cao (Cursive Script), arranged from earlier to later in their chronology of appearance.

Chinese painting covers a wide range of subject matters, but the type of painting are usually categorized by the use of ink and colour: 水墨 shuimo (monochrome ink), or 設色/著色 shese/zhuose (polychrome). Usually, ink paintings are more freely expressive, or sketchy and spontaneous, than polychrome paintings, which are slowly worked with many layers of paint. The two contrasting painting styles are also named 寫意 Xieyi (“writing the idea”) and 工筆 Gongbi (“meticulous brushwork”), respectively, although a lot of Xieyi paintings do also use colour.

Historically, as works of art, Chinese painting and calligraphy were mainly created on silk or paper and mounted into albums or scrolls. Other kinds of format and medium, like the mural, fan 扇, and screen 屏/幛 were widely used in various times, although the album leaf, fan, handscroll 卷, and hanging scroll 軸 were the most common formats for the connoisseur.

Among these formats, the handscroll is perhaps the most unique, as it prescribes an intimate and non-static viewing practice. The viewer holds the scroll in both hands and reveals the content about an arm’s length at a time, moving through the image as if watching a roll of film. The speed and direction of view is always in control of the viewer.

EAL Artworks on Permanent Display

EAL artworks

Bibliography

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Chinese Dynasties

Shang 商 c. 1600-1046 BCE

Zhou 周 c. 1046-256 BCE

Qin 秦 c. 221-206 BCE

Han 漢 c. 206 BCE-220 CE

Six Dynasties 魏晉南北朝 c. 220-589 CE

Sui 隋 c. 581-618 CE

Tang 唐 c. 618-906 CE

Five Dynasties 五代 c. 907-960 CE

Song 宋 c. 960-1279 CE

Yuan 元 c. 1279-1368 CE

Ming 明 c. 1368-1644 CE

Qing 清 c. 1644-1912 CE