Asian Arts

Characteristics

It shows culture and history of the country where it is from.

It focuses more on the natural and spiritual.

There are 2 countries highlighted in this era: China and India

Chinese Art

Characteristics

Forms of art have been influenced by great philosophers, teachers, religious figures and even political leaders.

Divided into periods by the ruling dynasties.

Historical Development

221 BC

Chinese ArtEarly forms of art in China were made from pottery and jade in the

Neolithic period ceramics were unpainted and most often cord-marked.

Banpo (1953) discovered at the Yellow River Valley

The Bronze Age in China began with the Xia Dynasty.

Shang Dynasty has more elaborate objects, including many ritual vessels that were crafted.

The most common motif in the Zhou Dynasty is the taotie, which shows a mythological being presented frontally as though squashed onto a horizontal plane to form a symmetrical design.

Bronze jue (wine

vessel)

Ding from late Zhou Dynasty

Early Imperial

China (221 BC–AD 220)

In early imperial China, porcelain was introduced and was refined to the point that in English the word china has become synonymous with high-quality porcelain. Around the 1st century AD, Buddhism arrived in China, though it did not become popular until the 4th century.

Qin Dynasty The Terracotta Army, inside the Mausoleum of the First Qin

Emperor, consists of more than 7,000 life-size tomb terra-

cotta figures of warriors and horses buried with the self-

proclaimed first Emperor of Qin in 210–209 BC.

The terracotta army belongs to Emperor Qin Shi Huang

and they are there to guard his burial site as well as

protecting the entry to the afterlife. He was the

dynasty  Emperor who managed to unify China so that it

became a central state and it was also because of him

that the foundations of the great wall were laid down.

Terracotta Army

•The Han Dynasty was known for jade burial suits.

A Han Dynasty Jade burial suit at the National Museum of

China, Beijing

Buddhist architecture and sculpture thrived in the Sui and Tang dynasty. Of which, the Tang Dynasty was particularly open to foreign influence. Buddhist sculpture returned to a classical form, inspired by Indian art of the Gupta period. Towards the late Tang dynasty, all foreign religions were outlawed to support Taoism.

Paintings in traditional style involved the same techniques as calligraphy and is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink.

In the Tang Dynasty , the primary subject matter of paintings was the landscapes known as shanshui (mountain water) painting.

These landscapes are usually monochromatic and sparse. Its purpose is to grasp an emotion or atmosphere so as to catch the rhythm of nature.

Shanshui

An anchorite, by Dai Jin

In the Song Dynasty, poetry was marked by a lyric poetry known as Ci (詞 ) which expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona. Also in the Song dynasty, paintings of more subtle expression of landscapes appeared, with blurred outlines and mountain contours which conveyed distance through an impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena. It was during this period that in painting, emphasis was placed on spiritual rather than emotional elements, as in the previous period.

Late imperial China (1368–1911)•Under the Ming dynasty, Chinese culture bloomed.

•Narrative painting, with a wider color range and a much busier composition than the Song paintings, was immensely popular during the time.

•European culture began to make an impact on Chinese art during this period.

Art TypesChinese folk artLiteratureVisual ArtChinese musicPerforming artsArchitecture

Chinese folk art

Literature

Visual art

Chinese Music

Performing Arts

Architecture

Indian Art 3rd millennium BC

Indian art can be classified into specific periods each reflecting particular religious, political and cultural developments.

To viewers schooled in the Western tradition, Indian art may seem overly ornate and sensuous

The earliest examples are petroglyphs

Bhimbetka rock painting, Madhya Pradesh, India (c. 30,000 years old)

Indian Painting

Mural Painting or Indian

Fresco

Mughal Painting

Mural Painting

Bhimbetka, 1500-2000BC

Mughal Painting

Raja Ravi Varma's Shakuntala

Babur Receives a Courtier, 1589, by Farrukh Baig

Indian SculptureBronze and stones were commonly used.

During the 2nd to 1st century BCE in far northern India, sculptures became more explicit, representing episodes of the Buddha’s life and teachings.

Bronze Statue of Nataraja

Apsara (10th AD)

Another of the most popular art forms is called Rangoli.

Rangoli Design

Rangoli is a form of sand

painting decoration that uses

finely ground white powder

and colors, and is commonly

used outside homes.

Indian Rock –art architecture

Panoramic view of relief sculpture at Mahabalipuram,

a World Heritage Site

Varaha Vave Temple(late 7th century)

Architecture

Ellora Cave

The temple complex at Khajuraho—adhering to the shikhara temple style architecture

Akshardham Temple in Delhi completed in 2005 

Taj Mahal

It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

Classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting,

literature (kaavya), music and dancing evolved

their own rules conditioned by their respective

media, but they shared with one another not only

the underlying beliefs but also the procedures by

which the relationship of the symbols and the

spiritual states were worked out in detail.