History of Chinese Painting

Chinese painting evolved from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries as technological sophistication, coupled with cultural transformations, affected the creative arts. Helen Gardner (380) sees these changes as linked, at least in part, to the growing significance of Zen Buddhism that emerged in Sung painting as of the late tenth century. This brief essay will examine a small selection of Chinese paintings to trace these changes.

The five traditional colors employed in China are white, black, red, yellow, and blue-green - which correspond to metal, water, fire, earth, and wood ("Some Landscapes" 1). An early example of Chinese painting from the late fourth or early fifth century is Lady Feng and the Bear, attributed to Ku K'ai-Chih. This artist is considered one of the greatest early Chinese painters. He took his subject for this scroll from a Chinese writer who explains the principles that an instructor in the royal palace would teach to the princesses under her care. Gardner (219) says that the secular subjec

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Category: History - H