Landscape in the style of Mi Fu - Essay Example

Chinese Painting Chinese painting The painting Landscape in the style of Mi Fu was painted by Kao Ko-kung (1248-1310) asdepicted by the colophon mounted on the painting. The work of the painting is synonymous to art work from china and Japan. The art was done during the late Sung period and early Yuan dynasty which began in within the fourteenth centaury. The Song era (960-1279) was the most scintillating period in the later imperial Chinese history in terms of culture. The early Northern Song Empire was characterised by one of the fundamental artistic expressions in Chinese civilisation. One such depiction of art was the landscape painting. The artists discovered the expression as they escaped for safety at the termination of the Tang dynasty to the mountain. The scenery was free from human contamination hence showcased nature in its pure form. In addition to this, the mountain was surrounded by other smaller mountains in perfect harmony as though to connote it was a master among subjects.1 The imagery was interpreted as a perfect state befitting the situation of the Chinese at the time. It was also during this period that the war-torn five dynasties become unified under the Song dynasty. Artists were then recruited from all over the unified empire to attend to the needs of the court. The diversified cultured then come together and harmonised their variations mostly expressing art through naturalistic styles in illustrating the world. Similarly, the image in the paint depicts one humongous mountain surrounded by smaller mountains or hills along with trees depicting a peaceful mountainous region. Moreover, as a result of the Unification, artwork styles were shared among the painters and expressions used by the old scholarly artists were also used. The subjugation of the Northern Song dynasty by the Yuan Dynasty failed to infiltrate the Chinese culture. The Mongol empire fell short in experience with regards to administration of the complex Chinese empire. Consequently, they slowly adopted political and cultural models of the Chinese. Nonetheless, the repercussion of the Mongol Empire was significant. The empire refused to recognise the Chinese literati. Most of them resigned to pursue personal interests and as such a culture of self-expression in painting was birthed and that of nature done away with. Through the learned scholar-artists, brushwork become the new calligraphy and assumed an independence that exceeded its function as a tool of developing representational forms. This period made variations in expressions to move beyond landscape to political expressions of the political frustration that was bombarding the Chinese during that era.2 Nonetheless, Kao Ko-kung’s work is associated with earlier work in (1051-1107) as observed by the characteristics similar to art by Mi Fu (1052-1109). Mi Fu’s most recognised work is his calligraphy as well as the landscape painting. His artwork was a termination of previous paintings common in the Song dynasty. During the Song era, landscape artwork in China relied on lines for its portrayal of the world. It was in his depiction of the mystic river along with the hills and Lake District in Henan province however that led Mi in the development of extreme moist washes as well as horizontal texture strokes that later on came to be referred to as Mi dots. The technique illustrated the region as a rainy and cloud-clad. Moreover, the splashed ink technique gained enthusiastic contemporary attention and continued to have compelling influence all through the history of Chinese art. According to the collector of the Landscape in the style of Mi Fu Wang Wen-chih (1730-1802), the ink wash used in the painting is reminiscent to the late Sang, early Yuan. The style both technique and conceptually borrows heavily to Mi Fu tradition which portrayed moist atmospheric landscape in his work during the Northern Sung era. The measure of the ink washes from the paint is in a limited array of tonal densities. Furthermore, there are only a small number of brushstrokes, mostly made up of simple horizontal dots utilised in building up the imprecise landscape forms. Mi Fu was a member of an eleventh century coterie of intellectual-artists who invented the literati or wenrenhua theory. The theory connotes that the worth of an artwork is not found in its imitation of nature but rather in the way it transforms nature into a medium that depicts the both the character and mood of the artist. For decades the theory influenced the stylistic approach of the scholar-novice literati painters whose work was expressed in ink only. These artists held in contempt mere illustrations of art and aimed to purposefully illustrate peculiar style complete with archaic reference interfered with astringent intellectualism. The trend was propagated with artists until the in the eighteenth century Yanzhou, that is, wealthy class of merchants began to follow the taste of the scholar-elite class specially made artwork in the literati style. The merchants therefore saved the termination of the scholar painters from the self-expressed paintings that trended beyond the fourteenth centaury.3 The basic style utilised in the painting by Kao Ko-kung’s is dependent on ink wash technique as opposed to precise delineation. This stylistic feature had incredible influence on later landscape artwork in both China and Japan due to artists learning from the scholarly-elite painters such as Mi Fu. Such painters belong to the traditionalist group of painters whose purpose was to rejuvenate paintings by creatively reinterpreting old models. This form of painting was made famous by Dong Qichang (1555-1636) whose literati painting was founded on the work of the old masters. The novel orthodox style utilised by Dong was formulated by Wang Hui (1632–1717) who incorporated the landscape styles invented in the Song dynasty together with the calligraphic synthesis from the Yuan dynasty thereby developing the great synthesis that was dominant between the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. A lot of the paintings in China began to utilise Dong’s theory in their artwork. The scroll used in the painting proffers an exceptional glance into the development of the late thirteenth-fourteenth century artwork, a significant period when the rudiments of literati painting was being invented. Kao Ko-kung lived within the end of the Song dynasty and the Yuan dynasty where art culture thrived and become diverse. His brushwork maintains the Mi Fu style with no distortions as was seen with paintings in the Yuan era. Considering artists from the Yuan era had begun utilise self-expressions in their work and portrayed political, social and cultural upheavals during that era, Kao Ko-kung work was still an illustration of landscape and used literati from old masters of art. Most of the artists resolved to draw paintings on religions such as is seen in the Buddhsits and Daoists religions. They stopped using nature as their source of inspiration but rather used painting as a form of expression of their daily life. The paint depicts a misty landscape with rolling hills projecting toward a centre. The artist utilises ink wash in varying degrees to bring out the forms of the objects in the landscape. The painting has no colour only black ink is used on a hanging scroll. The colour is used to bring out the forms of the hills and the mountains in order to portray the three-dimensional image of the forms.4 The ink wash was well as brush strokes also indicate where the lighting is coming from and makes the objects stand out from the haze. The shading ranges from black to grey and white and there is no Chinese calligraphy on the paintings. Moreover, the painting has not been signed and lacks a stamp as well. From a historical perspective, the landscape may illustrate the political situation China was in as a result of the end of the Song dynasty and the establishment of the Yuan. The highest hill represents the reigning empire while the small hills can be interpreted as the subjects all existing in peaceful co-existence. In conclusion, art can be used to explain the social, economic and cultural situations of people. It is important and depicting the old form as well as the new form of society. From the painting, there is a rich history of China’s political and economical development. The painting has deciphered the historical happenings behind China and its influence in the cultural development of modern China as well. Bibliography Capon, E. Look Societys Gift to the Gallery. Heidelberg: Springer , 2011. Fleming, J, and H Hugh. A world history of art. London: Laurence King, 2005. Kleiner, F. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History . New York: Cengage Learning, 2014. Menzies, J. Art of the Brush - Chinese & Japanese painting calligraphy. Sydney: Bloomsbury , 2012. Read More