China Online Museum

Showing category "Painting" (Show all posts)

The Joy of Fishes

Posted by China Online Museum on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, In : Painting 
       Playful fish in flora-filled water became a popular subject for Chinese painters when the cultivation of rare fish came into vogue in twelfth century. Because fish (魚, yu) is homophonous with the word for abundance (余, yu), it has become a common symbol for wealth and prosperity. Paintings of fish are often used to illustrate the auspicious expression, “May there be abundance year after year (年年有余).”

      Among the literati, the popularity of fish stems from the Daoist...
Continue reading ...
 

The Three Friends of Winter

Posted by China Online Museum on Thursday, March 10, 2011, In : Painting 

       The three friends of winter refer to the pine (松), bamboo (竹), and plum (梅). The origin of this term is found as early as the Record of the Five-cloud Plum Cottage (五雲梅舍記) from The Clear Mountain Collection (霽山集) of literary writings by Lin Jingxi (林景熙, 1241-1310, a Song dynasty loyalist), “For his residence, earth was piled to form a hill and a hundred plum trees, which along with lofty pines and tall bamboo comprise the friends of winter, were planted (...
Continue reading ...
 

Along the River During the Qingming Festival

Posted by China Online Museum on Wednesday, February 16, 2011, In : Painting 
       Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Up the River During Qingming, Qingming River View, 清明上河圖, pinyin: Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú) is a panoramic painting generally attributed to the Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (張擇端, 1085–1145). It captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing (汴京), today's Kaifeng (開封) in Henan (河南). The theme celebrates the festive spirit and prosperous street scene at the Qingming Festival, ...
Continue reading ...
 

Chinese Fans

Posted by China Online Museum on Tuesday, February 8, 2011, In : Painting 
       A hand-held fan is a rigid or folding device used throughout the world since ancient times for cooling, air circulation, or ceremony and as a sartorial accessory. The Chinese character for "fan" (扇) is etymologically derived from a picture of feathers under a roof.

       The rigid fan has a handle or stick with a rigid leaf, or mount. The folding fan is composed of sticks (the outer two called guards) held together at the handle end by a rivet or pin. On the sticks is mounted ...
Continue reading ...
 

Pan of the South and Li of the North

Posted by China Online Museum on Friday, June 12, 2009, In : Painting 
The phrase “Pan of the south and Li of the north (南潘北李)” was coined in recognition of two contemporary painters, Pan Tianshou (潘天寿) and Li Kuchan (李苦禅).

Pan Tianshou began his career teaching Chinese painting in 1923, when he moved to Shanghai to accept an assignment. In that same year, he met the 80-year-old master of the Shanghai School (海派), Wu Changshuo (吴昌硕), and the two painters became intimate friends. (Read more...)

Li Kuchan was born in Gaotang County ...
Continue reading ...
 

The Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty

Posted by China Online Museum on Friday, May 22, 2009, In : Painting 
The Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty is a name used to collectively describe the four Chinese painters Huang Gongwang (黄公望), Wang Meng (王蒙), Ni Zan (倪瓒) and Wu Zhen (吴镇), who were active in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). They worked during the Yuan period and were revered during the Ming Dynasty and later periods as major exponents of the tradition of “literati painting” (文人画), which was concerned more with individual expression and learning than with outward repr...
Continue reading ...
 
« Back to posts