Chinese LandscapesWorking With Space

Chinese Painting

• Has a long and rich history

• Format– Hand scrolls– Hanging scrolls– Fans

• Experiment with negative & positive space and different points of view

Dynasties

• China’s history is divided into periods called dynasties

• rulers from the same family

• Some were short, some long

• Some calm and productive, some violent and corrupt

Court Style

• Sculpture was the earliest Chinese art form

• Once paper was invented in 206 B.C. painting became more important

• During the peaceful Tang Dynasty (618-906) painters created realistic portraits and likelife detailed scenes of royal life – COURT STYLE

Scholar Painters

• Continued the figure tradition but set figures in vast landscapes

• The focal point of Spring Landscape is a man on horseback

• This is a hanging scroll

Hand Scrolls

• A hanging scroll is viewed all at one time

• Hand scrolls, such as the long, horizontal Horse and Groom are seen in pieces by rolling and unrolling them

• (Spring Morning in the Han Palace) pages 8-9 is 20 ft long and painted in the Court Style

3 Categories of Painting

• Figure• Landscape• Bird/Flower Painting

Tang Dynasty

• At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty people were the main subjects of Chinese paintings

• Landscapes were ONLY a background

• When the Tang Dynasty ended 300 years later, landscape had become a subject in itself

Dao

• Doaism considers human beings a very small part of an interactive constantly changing natural world

• Rocks, mountains, and stones are just as alive as humans, flowers, and animals.

Mansions in the Mountains of Paradise pg 4

• Feels mysterious because of the long vertical format

• Negative space is created by the mist (paper) to create foreground, middle ground, and background

• Mountain shapes repeat to feel deep space

Inspiration