Northern Sung Dynasty: Landscape Painting Influences Essay -- Art Hist

" This was the standard, which lasted until the Tang dynasty (618-907). During the Five Dynasties (907-960), between the ninth and tenth centuries, the trend of using ink to express ideas slowly took over the use of colors in the mainstream of Chinese landscape paintings. In other words, the tradition of using colors and the use of ink each lasted for one thousand years. Yet the emphasis on using colors actually lasted a little longer. This is because the tradition of color painting did not end even during the height of monochrome ink painting. While colors form the central elements in Tang paintings, beginning in the Five Dynasties period, ink played a dominant role. During the Song dynasty (960-1279), colors became important for a short period during the end of the Northern Song (960-1127). Usami notes that all paintings require forms. In the history of the Chinese theory of painting, however, the principal focus was a concern not with form, but with 'something beyond form'. (Usami, 1998) Chinese thinkers generally conceived of form in terms of a process of 'becoming solid'. But in the artistic production of 'chaotic forms', Chinese painting actually came more closely to resemble the processes of creation and change in nature. Thus painters themselves offered a visual interpretation of the creative act that differed radically from that formulated in the philosophical discourse of concepts and words. Mi Fu a southern Song Literati painter however, interpreted the phrase 'bamboo in mind' as a statement concerned solely with that, which existed in the mind. The form achieved in the painting thus came to be understood not as derived from the real world, but as originating from within the painter. This liberation of form from an ... ...ly Chinese Landscape Painting, (Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies) , Vol. 18, No. 3/4 (Dec., 1955), pp. 422-446, Harvard-Yenching Institute http://www.jstor.org/stable/2718439 Sullivan, Michael. â€Å"The Arts of China† Berkeley : University of California Press. 2008 5th ed. Sullivan, Michael. â€Å"Chinese landscape Painting† Berkeley: University of California Press,1980 Usami, Bunri, â€Å"A summary of "The Problem of Form in Song Dynasty Theories of Painting" (Faculty of ArtsShinshu University) Bulletin of the Sinological Society of Japan No.50, 1998 *Usami, Bunri â€Å"A summary of "The Problem of Form in Song Dynasty Theories of Painting" (Faculty of Arts, Shinshu University) Bulletin of the Sinological Society of Japan No.50, 1998 Northern Sung Dynasty: Landscape Painting Influences Essay -- Art Hist " This was the standard, which lasted until the Tang dynasty (618-907). During the Five Dynasties (907-960), between the ninth and tenth centuries, the trend of using ink to express ideas slowly took over the use of colors in the mainstream of Chinese landscape paintings. In other words, the tradition of using colors and the use of ink each lasted for one thousand years. Yet the emphasis on using colors actually lasted a little longer. This is because the tradition of color painting did not end even during the height of monochrome ink painting. While colors form the central elements in Tang paintings, beginning in the Five Dynasties period, ink played a dominant role. During the Song dynasty (960-1279), colors became important for a short period during the end of the Northern Song (960-1127). Usami notes that all paintings require forms. In the history of the Chinese theory of painting, however, the principal focus was a concern not with form, but with 'something beyond form'. (Usami, 1998) Chinese thinkers generally conceived of form in terms of a process of 'becoming solid'. But in the artistic production of 'chaotic forms', Chinese painting actually came more closely to resemble the processes of creation and change in nature. Thus painters themselves offered a visual interpretation of the creative act that differed radically from that formulated in the philosophical discourse of concepts and words. Mi Fu a southern Song Literati painter however, interpreted the phrase 'bamboo in mind' as a statement concerned solely with that, which existed in the mind. The form achieved in the painting thus came to be understood not as derived from the real world, but as originating from within the painter. This liberation of form from an ... ...ly Chinese Landscape Painting, (Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies) , Vol. 18, No. 3/4 (Dec., 1955), pp. 422-446, Harvard-Yenching Institute http://www.jstor.org/stable/2718439 Sullivan, Michael. â€Å"The Arts of China† Berkeley : University of California Press. 2008 5th ed. Sullivan, Michael. â€Å"Chinese landscape Painting† Berkeley: University of California Press,1980 Usami, Bunri, â€Å"A summary of "The Problem of Form in Song Dynasty Theories of Painting" (Faculty of ArtsShinshu University) Bulletin of the Sinological Society of Japan No.50, 1998 *Usami, Bunri â€Å"A summary of "The Problem of Form in Song Dynasty Theories of Painting" (Faculty of Arts, Shinshu University) Bulletin of the Sinological Society of Japan No.50, 1998