Early Chinese Art Flashcards
What was the logogrpahic writing system of ancient China?
As Detailed in the ‘Book of Changes’ (an ancient Chinese work of divination and prophesy). There are points that the script must make. The logogrpahs evolved increasing in complexity until modern chinese characters were formed.
How did ancient Chinese people use turtle shells to tell the future?
Turtle shells burnt and the cracks in the shell are read as signs from heaven. Markings on the right hand side are early script. Turtle shells also used as currency!
What was the original purpose of painting in ancient China
They were used to teach proper morality through didactic teaching eg those promoted by the Confusion society (Filial piety, represented by bronze bells), filial piety keeping men working as family are a unit of society.
Silk banners kept used for burial purposes
Example of a moral teaching through A Shrine Rubbing in Early China
WU LIANG SHRINE RUBBING- Image of a virtuous lady
Present on the walls of family shrines were didactic images of different moral tales used in an attempt to control the behaviour of women. This artwork is the tale of a beautiful widow, who, when her husband died and the King wanted her as his concubine, she cut off her nose in order to preserve her virtue and respect to her husband.
Example of a silk depicting a moral teaching for women in early China
Lady Feng and the Bear- Admonitions scroll
A Court instructress is acting as a moral exemplar to the ladies of the Court and is bravely keeping back a wild beast with long spears whilst the emporer is watching nonchalantly. Why were these images made? In this time period, it was common for wives to murder their husbands in order to attain more power.
Example of another silk depicting a moral teaching for women in early China
A Court instructress is acting as a moral exemplar to the ladies of the Court and is bravely keeping back a wild beast with long spears whilst the emporer is watching nonchalantly. Why were these images made? In this time period, it was common for wives to murder their husbands in order to attain more power.
The Chinese Handscroll
An intimate form of artistic esxpression that required very carefull handling and could be unrolled to tell a progressive story using separating strips to end that scene, the painting in the centre of the scroll. Families kept these scrolls and maintenance of the scrolls was important in their preservation, correct maintenance allowing them to be added to also. Every 200 years families would carefully remount the scrolls to protect the image but when the british museum bought one of these scrolls they cut and hemmed them together never again able to be remounted.
At what time did painting begin to gain respect beyond its political use, and why?
11th century because of thr new calligraphic brushwork. Painting now an amalgamation of three aspects (the three perfections):
Calligraphy, painting and poetry.
Importance of seals in ancient chinese art.
They documented the history of a painting, different seals for the artworks different owners throughout time. No work of Chinese calligraphy or painting is complete without the application of the author’s seal.
In China, Seals have been used for thousands of years to ensure the authenticity of important documents. In the Shang dynasty, important documents were transported in wooden containers capped with clay. In order to ensure that the documents were not tampered with in transport, a simple seal, likely with a clan symbol, was applied to the clay before it dried. Later, with the emergence of paper documents, seals bearing more complex characters would proclaim the authenticity of a document. A result of this was that simply owning a seal would be a marker of one’s political authority. As seals became part of the official apparatus of the state, esteemed individuals began to commission seals of a more fanciful nature. Auspicious sayings were engraved on seals so that, in more personal correspondence, the literati class could ‘authenticate’ their good wishes toward the recipient of a letter or poem. An important example of connoisseurship. Studio seals (where the artwork was made) and sugniture seals of artists were also used.
