What is the painting of ladies in Tang Dynasty?
Zhang Xuan was a court painter in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. He used to be a painter in the history museum. He is an outstanding figure painter and custom painter in China. He is famous for painting aristocratic women, babies and pommel horses. His embellishment of the scene is wonderful, especially in revealing the psychological state of the characters. He painted ladies, his ears were often stained with scarlet, his figure was plump and his clothes were luxurious. Most of Zhang Xuan's paintings are about aristocratic life. He once painted the daily life of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei, such as Ming Taizu taking pleasure, Ming Taizu playing Wu Tongshu, Ming Taizu enjoying the cool, and the later Tang Dynasty came from the picture. His most representative works are The Picture of the Lady of the State of Guo You Chun and The Picture of Tao Ren.
You Chuntu, the wife of the State of Guo, is a copy and is now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum. On the extremely fine and smooth palace silks, Yang Guifei's sister, Mrs. Guo, was painted for a spring outing on horseback. The composition of the whole volume is coherent, dense, delicate and powerful, with clear color symmetry, which embodies the superb skills of the figure painting of ladies in the Tang Dynasty. Mrs. Guo lives in the second half of the picture, wearing a fashionable ponytail and hanging sideways, which is unique. There are three riders before and after her, namely the waitress and the nanny. Her sister, Mrs Qin or Mrs Han, may be sitting arm in arm, talking politely. Among them, the first three times are sparse, and the last five times are relatively close and scattered, which constitutes the change of rhythm. The whole picture scroll is not embellished with any background. The horse's brisk pace, the leisurely manner of the characters and the gorgeous dress make the meaning of the spring outing vividly. The lines of this painting are meticulous and vivid. Mineral pigments such as vermilion, ochre red and stone green are used to smudge the thin and bright spring shirts of the characters, and the color remains unchanged for a long time. From the perspective of character modeling, the aristocratic women in the Tang Dynasty at this time were not as exquisite as those in later ladies' paintings. They rode immediately, without makeup on their faces, plump but agile.
Another masterpiece of Natalie, The Lotus of the Knife, is a replica of Song Huizong Evonne, which is now in the Boston Art Museum. Practice is a kind of silk fabric, which needs to be boiled, bleached and mashed before it becomes soft and applicable. The map of rammed earth shows the process and scene of female rammed earth. The whole picture is divided into three parts: tamping, weaving, straightening and ironing. There are 12 characters on the screen, with plump figure and refined manners. Ironing is the most commendable part. Two women hold both ends of the ram. The woman in the blue skirt leaned back slightly and tightened her exercise hard. In the middle, a woman is ironing clothes with an iron, and a maid is helping her memorize pictures. There is also a little girl who bends down under the exercise and looks up playfully, as if trying to find out if there is anything hidden on the back of the exercise. The characters in the picture are sideways, leaning back, drooping or sideways, with vivid images, smooth descriptions, gorgeous colors and rich life breath, which reflects the aesthetic taste of advocating health and fullness in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and represents the typical style of character modeling in that era.
After Zhang Xuan, the representative painter of lady painting is Zhou Fang. Because of the different times, Zhou Fang's and Zhang Xuan's ladies' paintings have different aesthetic tastes. Zhou Fang's paintings of ladies come down in one continuous line with Zhang Xuan's, but they are more mature. Zhang Xuan lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and most of the ladies in her works showed a healthy and beautiful beauty and a prosperous and luxurious bearing. Zhou Fang lived in the declining middle and late Tang Dynasty, and his aesthetic taste gradually changed from grandeur to delicacy and elegance. The female images in his works are plump, with fine eyes, plump cheeks, luxurious clothes, simple strokes and soft colors. He is good at observing women's mentality, especially at describing the empty and lonely life situation and subtle mood of harem concubines, such as flapping butterflies, caressing Zheng, playing chess, waving fans and playing music.
Zhou Fang's skill in figure painting is extremely profound, and his portraits can convey the charm of the characters; In terms of Buddhist painting, he is unique, initiating the painting method of "Shui Yue Guan Yin", and putting the Guanyin Bodhisattva in a quiet and clear environment to show holiness. Later, it was used by painters of all ages. People call their figure paintings, especially those of inverted women and Buddha statues, "Zhou School". It is said that Zhou Fang had been instructed by Tang Dezong Shili to draw the temple god of Zhang Jing, which immediately attracted thousands of Beijingers to watch, and some even quipped. Some people also mentioned its shortcomings. Zhou Fang listens to opinions with an open mind, which changes every day. A few months later, he stopped writing until everyone saidno. According to legend, Zhao Zong, son-in-law and assistant minister of Guo Ziyi, a famous Tang Dynasty, invited Han Gan and Zhou Fang to paint his portrait. After painting, Zhao Zong put the portrait on the side of the seat, and it was difficult to decide whether it was good or bad. Or Mrs. Zhao commented: "The two paintings are almost the same. The former painter is like Zhao Lang, and the latter painter is moving, which makes Zhao Lang laugh. " Zhou Fang's unique artistic skills are revealed in one sentence. It can be seen that Zhou Fang's painting skills are superb, and her painting of ladies deserves to be called "the best in ancient and modern times". Zhao Mengfu, a great painter in Yuan Dynasty, admired the painting styles of Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang, while Zhou Lang, a court painter in Yuan Dynasty, was the most outstanding imitator. His "Map of Du Qiuniang" is completely derived from the modeling of "Zhou Jia", which shows the elegant and free rhythm of Yuan people with a pen.
More than half of Zhou Fang's more than 70 works handed down from generation to generation belong to ladies' paintings, including Yang Fei's Out of the Bath, You Chun, Qi Gong and Wan Fan. And there are still some paintings that have been handed down to this day, such as a picture of a lady wearing a hairpin, a picture of a lady waving a fan, and a picture of a lady drinking tea on a piano.
The photo of a beautiful woman wearing a hairpin is now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum. It is said to be Zhou Fang's original work, which was written in the late Tang Dynasty or the Five Dynasties. The whole painting is painted on silk, depicting the scene of aristocratic women enjoying flowers at the turn of spring and summer, which is divided into four sections: picking flowers, enjoying flowers, walking and teasing dogs. The composition is flat, the lines of the characters are concise, round and powerful, and the colors are rich and good. The two ladies at the beginning and end of the picture scroll look back at each other and echo back and forth, folding the whole picture into a whole. There is no scenery as the background, only a white crane with wings spread is drawn in the middle, and a group of magnolia Shi Jing is arranged at the right end. The composition is concise, elegant and full of vitality. Judging from the costumes of the characters and the bouquets held by cranes and ladies, it can be roughly inferred that the painting scene is in late spring. The people in the painting are plump, and the clothes are mainly red and purple, which is extremely luxurious and gorgeous. They have high bun, big peony, fragrant white jasmine, tube top and light gauze colored clothes. The gauze painter at the arm is specially dyed, and the arm is looming in the gauze dress, so that the fatty skin and transparent gauze complement each other and have a good texture. Looking closely at the characters' modality, the ladies are plump, the woman in scarlet cloak looks dignified, the woman teasing the dog is young and lively, and the woman holding flowers looks carefree. Everyone is immersed in their own world, and the whole picture is full of a leisurely atmosphere. It is said that this roll was re-mounted and found to be four independent screen paintings.
The success of ladies' painting in Tang Dynasty lies in the depiction of characters' costumes. In Zhang Xuan's works, we see people in the general sense; In Zhou Fang's paintings, we will find many special techniques of meticulous brushwork, such as the lady's high bun, which is black and shiny. The rendering of black hair is definitely not easy to do. The requirement of meticulous painting is black but not impetuous, deep and thick. Zhou Fang's rendering just reflects this charm. In addition, the transparent effect of ladies' light gauze, the decorative pattern of clothing, and the white line outlined along the edge line in the dark gauze sleeve are all special techniques rarely seen in meticulous painting in the past. Even a dusty tail and a round fan handle are carefully depicted, and their paintings are exquisite art treasures.
Compared with the previous generation of ladies' paintings, the ladies' paintings in Natalie and Zhou Fang show the real court women to the audience for the first time. Gu Kaizhi was the first person to draw a picture of a lady before Zhang and Zhou. However, in his paintings, female images often appear as characters in a legend or story. Characters pay attention to body description and win with the charm embodied in clothes. Because it is basically in the middle, the face of the character is not the focus of the painter's attention. However, in Zhang Xuan's and Zhou Fang's paintings, only a fragment of life scenes is often intercepted, such as spring outing, beating, hairpin, fan, looking in the mirror and so on. So the female image becomes the center of the painting, and the characters are often placed at close range, and the facial expression becomes the focus of depiction.
The influence of the ladies' paintings initiated by Zhang and Zhou continued from the late Tang and Five Dynasties to the Yuan Dynasty. Although the figures are slightly reduced, the theme, expression, face and clothing all follow their painting style. It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that the society's aesthetic view of women changed fundamentally. It was no longer rich and elegant, but turned to slim and exquisite, and the style of ladies' paintings also turned. In addition, Zhang and Zhou's paintings of ladies have also had a far-reaching impact on neighboring countries. In Japanese ukiyo-e paintings, we can still clearly see the shadows of Zhang and Zhou ladies' paintings.