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Chapter 28China

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China

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Neolithic and Early Chinese Art

• Calligraphy is the most respected Chinese art form.– Central artistic expression in traditional

China.– Those who wanted important state

positions had to pass a battery of exams that included calligraphy.

• Chinese painting formats include handscrolls, hanging scrolls, fans and album leaves.

• Daoism is a belief begun by Laozi that stresses individual expression striving to find balance in one’s life.

• Confucianism is a philosophy belief begun by Confucius that stresses education, devotion to family, mutual respect and traditional culture.

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Bi disk with dragons, from Jincun(?), China, Eastern Zhou dynasty, fourth to third century BCE. Nephrite, 6 1/2” in diameter. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

China is a monumental civilization producing large-scale sculpture as a sign of grandeur.

Circular jade disk with round center symbolizing heaven. Dragons are a symbol of good luck and a bringer of weather in general and rain in particular.

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Army of the First Emperor of Qin in pits next to his burial mound, Lintong, China, Qin dynasty, ca. 210 BCE. Painted terracotta, average figure 5’ 10 7/8” high.

8,00 terra-cotta warriors, 100 wooden chariots, 2 bronze chariots, 30,000 weapons all buried as part of a tomb of Emperor Shir Huangdi. Soldiers stand at 6 feet tall – some fierce, proud, confident. This is a representation of a Chinese army marching into the next world. Daoism influence with the individual expressions. Originally painted – discovered in 1974

Seated Buddha and standing bodhisattva, Cave 20, Yungang Grottoes, Datong, China, Northern Wei dynasty, ca. 460–470 CE. Sandstone, 45’ high.

In Situ rock carving of a 45’ Buddha. Indian influence in the face, Central Asian influence in his huge shoulders and pleated drapery. Buddha sits in a lotus position, tight garments, long ears, and knot on top of head. 6

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Architectural Basics in China

• Early residential houses contain exterior walls of a courtyard to keep the crowded outside world away. Framed with an atrium in which family members resided in comparative tranquility.

• Elders were to be honored and lived in a suite of rooms on the warmer north end of the courtyard.

• Children lived in the wings • Servants on the south end

– Southeast corner served as an entrance and southwest as a lavatory.

Pagods, Temple of Heaven, 15th century, Beijing China

The stupa design later transformed into pagodas as the Buddhist built it with the idea of India in mind while moving eastward with missionaries along the Great Silk Road.

Built for a sacred purpose, the pagoda chacteristically has one design that repeats vertically on each level, tapering towards the sky. Pagoda’s reach substantial heights through this repetition of forms.

Emperors performed rituals twice a year to ensure a good harvest – no civilians were allowed.Foundation of three levels of white marble

Interior 12 tiles symbolizing hours of the day – 12 columns symbolizing months of the year and 4 columns for the seasons. 8

Forbidden City, 15th Century, Ming Dynasty, Beijing, China

Largest and most complete Chinese ensemble in existence. Contains 9,00 rooms – 30’ high walls to keep people out. Named the Forbidden City since only the royal court could enter. Each tower on the four corners of the rectangle symbolize the four corners of the world.

The various gates, courtyards and buildings all lead eventually to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is perched on an immense marble platform. It becomes an exterior focal point. Within the hall the emperor sits on his throne that is also placed on a high stepped platform. He becomes the focus for this interior. Both exterior and interior vistas lead to the emperor.

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Court Painters vs. the Literati

• Artists who rejected the restrictive nature of court art and developed a highly individualized style are called Literati. They worked as painters, furniture makers, and landscape architects.

• The Literati were often scholars rather than professional artists and did not sell their works of art, but rather gave them to friends and connoisseurs.

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DONG QICHANG, Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains, Ming dynasty, 1617. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 7’ 3 1/2” x 2’ 2 1/2”. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (Leonard C. Hanna Jr. bequest).

Known as the “first modernist painter” because his work foreshadows developments in the 19th century European landscape paintings His landscapes as shaded masses of rocks alternating with black bands, flattening the composition and creating expressive, abstract patterns.

His forms are arranged in an interlocking composition of diagonal lines and curves.

Ma Yuan, Bare Willows and Distant Mountains, late 12th century, album leaf, ink on silk

Poetic and sensitive mood with empty space throughout the composition. Precise and detailed lines of silhouetted weeping willow trees in the background. Subtly graded ink tones and strong diagonal organization.

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Art of the Qing Dynasty

• European artists travelled to the Qing court and introduced Renaissance and Baroque pictorial elements to China. Nonetheless, any successful European artists adapted their painting to fit the preferred Chinese court tastes.

SHITAO, Man in a House beneath a Cliff, Qing dyansty, late 17th century. Album leaf, ink and colors on paper, 9 ½” X 11”. C.C. Wang Collection, New York.

Shitao experimented with extreme effects of massed ink and individualized brushwork patterns. In the album leaf, vibrant free-floating colored dots and sinuous contour lines surround a hut.

Unlike traditional literati, Shitao did not so much depict the landscape’s appearance as animate it, molding forces running through it

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