Chinese and Korean Art Before 1279

Funerary bronze Guang The Terracotta Army

the individual and the universal

Earthenware decorated pottery: style and function centrality of nature

Painting: influences of Daoism and Confucianism

- Gu Kaizhi

-  Fan Kuan

Buddhist cave shrines and iconography

Korean Celadon-Glazed Ceramics

Third millennium BC: Paleolithic earthenware

FORMAL: limited colors (red, brownish and black), stylized animals, abstract (angular and curvilinear geometric motifs), perfectly embrace the vessel

FUNCTION: both utilitarian purposes (to hold foods and other goods) and ritual purposes (burial rites)

Yangshao Culture vases, from Gansu Province, China ca. 2500 BC. Earthenware.

Greek vases: the human figure more an more central

centrality of nature

1)  man is not the culminating achievement of the creation

2) conceptual interdependence between the detail and the total, deriving both the universe and the little thing from the original egg

Guang, probably from Anyang, China, Shang Dynasty, 11th-12th

century BC. Bronze

-  Guang (bronze vessels found in tombs ) containers for offerings of food and wine

-  Formal: animal and abstract relief motifs; relationship shape-decoration

Ritual bronzes

Guang, probably from Anyang, China, Shang Dynasty, 11th-12th

century BC. Bronze

Decorative animals covered with same spiral motifs of the background; horror vacui

Rulers controlled production of bronze:

Shamanistic religion: communication with the spirit world required offerings of food to the ancestors which were only possible through the use of such vessels

military domination

Army of the First Emperor of Qin in pits next to his burial mound,

Lintong, China, Qin Dynasty, ca. 210 BC. Painted Terracotta

- 2 centuries of war, (Warring State Period, 475-221 BC) ended with victory of Qin

- China was united under a single ruler first emperor of Qin, Shihuangdi

The Terracotta Army

Army of the First Emperor of Qin in pits next to his burial mound, Lintong,

China, Qin Dynasty, ca. 210 BC. Painted Terracotta

Originally painted in vivid colors

individualized faces

Technique: same molds used repeatedly, but assembled in many different combinations

result: balance of uniformity and individuality

FORMAL

During the Warring State Period (475-221 BC), two philosophies/religions: Daoism and Confucianism

Daoism: harmony with nature, retreat from society

Confucianism: collective dimension: empathy for suffering, respect for tradition

Effort to unite the country

Uniformity and individuality

Confucianism: moral and didactic role of painting

Subject: 7 stories of wifely virtue

Gu Kaizhi, Lady Feng

and the Bear, late 4th century,

Handscroll, ink and

colors on silk

escaped circus bear

female servants run away

Fearful emperor

Lady Feng places herself between the bear and the emperor

Format: Handscroll meant to be viewed privately

Read from right to left, displaying only a foot or two at time

http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/resources/Painting/GuKaizhi/admonitions.jpg

thin lines, few outlined areas filled with color, blank background with only minimal setting for the scene and represented space, vertical perspective

Gu Kaizhi, Lady Feng and the Bear, late 4th century, Handscroll, ink and colors on silk

iconography: the band flowing from Lady Feng’s dress = movement

upturned strings = fear

FORMAL:

1)  “spirit” (Daoist qi): qi is the cosmic spirit that flows through all things

artists must cultivate their own spirit so that the qi, through them, animates their work

Canons 2-5 concentrate on technical matters

2)   Brushstrokes are the “bones” of a painting. Brushstroke as a vehicle of expression, through which the qi makes itself felt

6th principle: Confucian reverence for tradition and institutions:

“Painting must transmit knowledge of past painting traditions”

6TH century CE, Xie He’s six principles:

SEATED BUDDHA, CAVE 20 YUNGANG, Dantong, Shanxi. Northern Wei dynasty, c. 460. Stone, h. 45’

SEATED BUDDHA, CAVE 20 YUNGANG, Dantong, Shanxi. Northern Wei dynasty, c. 460. Stone, h. 45’

Fan Kuan, Travelers

among mountains

and Streams, Northern

Song Dynasty,

early 11th century, Hanging

scroll, ink and colors on silk

Hanging scroll

Foreground

Combination of OPTICAL + DESCRIPTIVE approach: realism of details / shifting perspectives

-  element of TIME

-  Fan Kuan called nature his “only true teacher”

-  Scientific precision (trees, rocks, etc.) + imaginary landscape

-  Chiaroscuro (volumes) + variety of represented textures + plain ground (fabric)

-  Neo-Confucianism: Daoism (landscape painting tradition, nature) + Confucianism (rationality, social hierarchy) + Buddhism (enlightenment)

MAEBEYONG BOTTLE WITH DECORATION OF BAMBOO AND BLOSSOMING PLUM TREE, Korea, Goryeo Dynasty, 12-13 cent. CE. Inlaid celadon ware, h. ca. 13”

INLAID TECHNIQUE

MAEBEYONG BOTTLE WITH DECORATION OF BAMBOO AND BLOSSOMING PLUM TREE, Korea, Goryeo Dynasty, 12-13 cent. CE. Inlaid celadon ware, h. ca. 13”