The History Of Chinese Painting.

The ancient civilization of China, perhaps, is one of the few cultures in history that have their own independent sources of origin. This is the only ongoing and continuously evolving ethnic culture. Having originated thousands years ago, Chinese culture is thriving today. Ancient examples of Chinese painting dates back to the Neolithic period (6-5 millennium BC). This is potteries with images of people, fish, found during excavations in Banpo, near Xian, and ceramic pot with painted figures of dancers, found during excavations in Qinghai. Starting from the reign of the Shang and Zhou and till to Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period (3.16 cc. BC) it has been distributed ornate ritual vessels and other articles made of bronze.

Painting on silk first appeared in the Warring States era. The earliest products known to date are the drawings on silk from the graves since the kingdom of Chu; one depicts human figures, dragons and phoenix, the other – the people riding the dragon. In the reign of the Qin and Han (221 BC – 220 BC) mural painting developed. It was distributed not only in palaces and temples, but also in the graves. Burial of the Han Dynasty murals discovered in the provinces of Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, Gansu, Liaoning, Jilin. Sculptural images of warriors and horses made of clay life-size were found in the tomb of Qin Shih Huang Ti, First Emperor of Qin Dynasty, and stone ones – on the way to the burial of General Ho Tsyuybina. Both groups of sculptures are quite realistic, each of them represents a unique piece. Flourishing of temple painting falls on the period of the dynasties of Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties. Spread of Buddhism in this period led to the creation of sculptures and murals of the Buddha in the mountain caves.

Chinese painting is very different from the West not so much with a set of technical means, as fundamentally different artistic language, which is more conventional and decorative. For us it is difficult to identify the emotional richness of Chinese painting, as the Chinese have other ways to show feelings and being treated differently by these feelings. Internal tensions and contradictions of Western paintings produce on the Chinese audience the impression of undue aggression and randomness.

In China, the painting had never been based on mathematical constructs, such as the Greek canon or contemporary abstraction, did not try to imitate nature as a realistic art, did not pay much attention to the “I” and “personal”, as did the expressionists and romanticists. Where Europeans sculptured volume using light and shade, the Chinese sought a linear expression.

The first known in China, images, pictures – are narrow friezes in the cave temples. Later these conditional, almost ornamental bands expanded to a larger size. Also, these temples were decorated with scrolls, vertical and horizontal. Vertical scroll – this is usually one or several genre scenes, placed one above the other, and the horizontal – painting, infinite in both directions, a kind of beautiful book. The proportions of the scrolls were canonized. Scrolls were highly valued and were intended for a concentrated contemplation. They were becoming collectors’ items; each collector put his stamp on the scroll. Scrolls were stored in the special boxes and never posted for a long time.

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