Chinese Literati Painting -- Page 4
The Early Height of Academic Painting in the Song
After many centuries where decorative painting and painting of human and animal figures were the most developed forms of visual art in China, landscape painting entered a period of sudden development during the Tang and early Song Dynasties. While we have almost no paintings from the Tang that remain, some of China's most famous paintings come from the early Song (the Northern Song period, 960-1127, before the invasion of North China forced the Song rulers into the South). These are monumental "hanging scrolls," very large paintings on silk that are mounted to hang on walls. They were composed by professional court artists, and the technique used in them departs from the "calligraphic" skills common to all literate people, and attempts to use a very complex array of brush strokes to convey an effect of "verisimilitude" (that is, the landscapes seem "real"). Here are two examples. The painting on the left is by Fan Kuan, and is called "Travelers By Streams and Mountains." (You can just see the travelers and their ox-carts, dwarfed by the landscape -- almost dots on this web version of the painting -- towards the bottom.) On the right is "Early Spring," by Guo Xi. If you wish to explore "Early Spring" more closely, click on the image for a large size version.