Chinese Art Masterpieces in Print: History, Lineage, Legacy
傳承經典: 中國古代書畫名作復刻品
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
- A: Couplet in lishu 隸書 (Clerical Script)| DU Qizhang 杜其章 | 1934
- B: Shanshui landscape painting | Inscription by Langxi 朗𠧧
- C1+C2: A pair of horses in the style of rubbing | Anonymous
- D: Ukiyo-e prints
- D1: Two Warriors | KUNIYOSHI Utagawa 歌川国芳
- D2: Two Women with lantern (from the Tale of Genji) | KUNISADA II, Utagawa 二代目歌川国貞 | c. 1857
- D3: Ichikawa | KUNISADA II, Utagawa 二代目歌川国貞 | c. 1865
- E: One Summer Afternoon 한여름의 오후 Han yŏrŭm ŭi ohu | Kyung Sook YU 유경숙
- F: Winter Landscape 설경 Sŏlgyŏng | Sung Hoon CHOI 최성훈
- G: Ink painting of horse 飛兔玉津 | Tien CHANG 章天柱
- H: Guohua paintings from Chinese Arts Exhibition, held by the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library for Asian Heritage Month 2011 | Dora Wang, CAI Dingwen, RONG Jungchun, JI Jinhai, and Tien CHANG 王苗德貞，蔡鼎文，榮京春，紀金海，章天柱
- I: The Moon Jar | acrylic painting | Jong-Im Agnes LIM 임종임
- J: Portrait of an official | Anonymous | Ming-Qing Dynasty
- K: Landscape painting | Pujin (Xuezhai) 溥伒 (雪齋)
- L: Landscape painting | Dora Wang 王苗德貞
- M: Calligraphy in kaishu 楷書 (Regular Script) | LIU Baikuan 劉白寬
- N1: Guohua painting on a fan | Anonymous
- N2: Ink stroke | Anonymous
- O: Shanshui landscape painting triplet | Anonymous
- P: Abstract ink painting | Anonymous
- Q: Shanshui landscape painting | Anonymous | 19-20C
- R: Waterfall Guohua painting | Anonymous
- S: Guohua landscape painting | TAO Yiqing 陶一清
- T: Eiko in Fukushima, Namie, Ukedo Beach, 27 June 2017, No. 382 (top) + Eiko in Fukushima, Hisanohama Fishing Harbor, 25 June 2017, No. 391 (bottom) | Eiko OTAKE and William Johnston
- U: Ukiyo-e prints
- U1: Untitled (from Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido) | Hiroshige
- U2: River Crossing (from Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido) | Hiroshige
- U3: Untitled | Kunisada | c.1860s
Bibliography
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