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Name: Bamboo Groves in Mist and Rain
Date: 1308 CE
Period/Style: Yuan Dynasty
Artist: Guan Daosheng
Patron: Buyantu Khan, also known as Emperor Renzong of Yuan, 8th Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (r. 1311 CE - 1320 CE)
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Ink on rice paper, 9 1/8" x 3' 8 7'8
Context: Guan Daosheng became famous for her elegant paintings of bamboo. Bamboo is a popular subject of Chinese art. It both symbolizes the ideal Chinese gentleman ("who bends in adversity, but does not break"), and depictions of bamboo branches and leaves approximate calligraphy.
Descriptive Terms: Bamboo Groves in Mist and Rain is a handscroll; most Chinese paintings of this period were produced on handscrolls. Guan achieved the misty atmosphere of this piece by restricting the ink tones to a narrow range, and by blurring the thickets in the distance, suggesting a receding landscape and fog. |
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Name: Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
Date: 1347 CE - 1350 CE
Period/Style: Yuan Dynasty
Artist: Huang Gongwang
Patron: -
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Section of a handscroll, ink on rice paper, 1' 7/8 x 20' 9"
Context: Huang Gongwang was a former-civil servant turned literati (scholar-artist). Like many of his fellow countrymen, he refused to cooperate with China's new foreign overlords.
Descriptive Terms: Huang portrayed the details of this landscape with skillful brush strokes; the texture of the mountains was created by interweaving dry and wet brush strokes, as well as light and dark strokes. |
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Name: The Forbidden City
Date: c. 15th century and onward
Period/Style: Ming Dynasty
Artist/Architect: Unknown
Patron: Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, 3rd Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (r. 1402 CE - 1424 CE)
Original Location: Beijing, China
Material/Technique: Timber, marble, baked paving bricks, etc.
Function: Served as the home of the Chinese Emperor and functioned as the center of Ming China's imperial bureaucracy.
Context: In 1368 CE, Zhu Yuanzhong overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and established the native Chinese Ming Dynasty. Although he moved the capital to Nanjing, his grandson, Zhu Di, moved it back to Beijing and constructed the Forbidden City on the former site of the Yuan Dynasty's palace.
Descriptive Terms: The Forbidden City epitomizes Chinese palatial architecture. It is, by far, the largest and most opulent Ming Dynasty palace. Successive gates -oriented along a north-south axis- regulated access to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where the Chinese Emperor held court. |
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Name: Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains (right half)
Date: 1300 CE
Period/Style: Yuan Dynasty
Artist/Architect: Zhao Mengfu
Patron: -
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Painting on handscroll, created with ink and color on rice paper
Descriptive Terms: Color and calligraphy are masterfully employed by Zhao to create a scene which exemplifies the beauty of autumn.
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Name: Stalks of Bamboo by a Rock
Date: 1347 CE
Period/Style: Yuan Dynasty
Artist: Wu Zhen
Patron: N/A
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Hanging scroll, ink on rice paper.
Context: Not all great Chinese artists were employed at the Emperor's court. Wu Zhen shunned the Mongol court and lived as a hermit. Wu Zhen was one of China's famed literati (artist-scholars), men who involved themselves in the arts and painted for a small audience of their educational and social peers.
Descriptive Terms: Like many other literati pieces, Stalks of Bamboo by a Rock demonstrates demonstrates the artist's personal relationship with and respect for nature, as well as their nostalgia for the past. Wu's soft and relaxed painting features stupendous brushwork; his naturalistic portrayal of the bamboo shoots perfectly complements the detailed calligraphy on the right side of the piece. |
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Name: Suzhou Gardens, also known as Wangshi Yuan (Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets)
Date: c. 16th Century
Period/Style: Ming Dynasty
Artist/Architect: Unknown
Patron: Ming Dynasty Emperors
Original Location: Suzhou, China
Material/Technique: Natural elements (i.e. indigenous Chinese trees, flowers, plants) and artificial elements (i.e. rock formations)
Context: The Garden of the Master of Fishing Nets is one of several large pleasure gardens in Suzhou. The naturalistic and organic style of the Chinese pleasure gardens stand in stark contrast to the formality and rigid axiality of Chinese palatial architecture.
Descriptive Terms: The garden demonstrates Chinese garden designers' adept skills for synthesizing art, nature, and architecture to create unique metaphysical masterpieces.
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Name: Lofty Mount Lu
Date: 1467 CE
Period/Style: Ming Dynasty, Wu School of Painting
Artist: Shen Zhou
Patron: N/A
Original Location: Suzhou, China
Material/Technique: Hanging scroll, ink and color on rice paper.
Context & Description: Shen Zhou was a literati; like many literati works, this piece is of a personal nature, and served as a birthday gift to a mentor. The grandeur and size of Mount Lu symbolized the lofty character of Shen's mentor. The obscured figure in the bottom-center of the painting further emphasizes the size of the mountain, as well as the subordination of the student to his mentor. |
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Name: Ge Zhichuan Relocating
Date: c. 1340 CE
Period/Style: Yuan Dynasty
Artist: Wang Meng
Patron: N/A
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Ink and color on rice paper
Descriptive terms: Confucian scholarly works inspired Wang's piece, prompting him to create a richly textured painting, featuring dense, complex, and colorful patterns. |
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Name: Rent Collection Courtyard
Date: 1965 CE
Period/Style: Socialist Realist
Artist: Ye Yushuan and others
Patron: N/A
Original Location: Dayi, Sichuan, China
Material/Technique: Sculpture made of clay-straw mixture
Context: Following decades of strife, the Communists under Mao Zedong triumphed over Jiang Jeshei's Nationalists. Jiang retreated to the island of Taiwan, where the Republic of China was established; on the mainland, Mao established the People's Republic of China. Like the USSR, the PRC adopted the Socialist Realist style for all state art projects. In China, the Socialist Realist style emphasized the vicious class struggle between the Chinese peasantry and their feudal landlords prior to the revolution, the ceaseless exploitation of the working class by reactionaries, and the necessity of continued revolution (in an effort to purge the country of all anti-Maoist elements).
Description: Rent Collection Courtyard is a 100-yard long tableau comprising 119 life-sized figures; it depicts the oppression suffered by the workers and peasants of China by the upper classes prior to the establishment of the PRC. In conforming to the peasant class, the materials of the piece are of a strictly proletarian nature (clay and straw, rather than the more expensive and traditional bronze and plaster); additionally, the ubiquity of its construction materials further emphasize the universality of the piece's message. Overall, it is one of the most significant artworks in modern Chinese history. |
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Name: Auspicious Objects
Date: 1724 CE
Period/Style: Qing Dynasty
Artist: Guiseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining)
Patron: N/A
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk.
Context: During the Qing Dynasty, European Jesuit missionaries became increasingly common at the Qing court. Their presence led to the introduction of High Renaissance and Baroque painting styles to China.
Description: Auspicious Objects exemplifies Guiseppe Castiglione's synthesis of Chinese and Italian painting styles: his emphasis on a single source of light that creates consistent shadows, and interest in three dimensional volume are unmistakably European, but the use of Chinese symbology (eagles, rocks, and pine trees), as well as the detail in the composition of the branches and leaves of the overhanging pine tree, make the piece fundamentally Chinese.
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Name: Clearing after Snow in a Mountain Pass
Date: c. 1510 CE
Period/Style: Ming Dynasty
Artist: Tang Yin
Patron: N/A
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Hand scroll, ink and color on rice paper.
Context: Tang Yin is considered one the "Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty," and one of the most esteemed literati figures of the Ming Dynasty. His peers included Shen Zhou, a fellow members of Suzhou's Wu School of Painting. Following his death, Dong Qichang would criticize Tang for using his art to financially support himself.
Description: Tang's piece depicts a snow-covered landscape, and a small band of wagons attempting to pass through the blocked mountain pass. Like many other Ming Dynasty pieces produced by literati painters, the subject of this piece is nature. Tang's attention to detail and naturalistic depiction of the elements is extraordinary; he skilfully portrays the simple beauty and elegance of a Chinese winter. |
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Name: Pavilion in the Mountains of the Immortals
Date: c. 1500 CE
Period/Style: Ming Dynasty
Artist: Qiu Ying
Patron: N/A
Original Location: China
Material/Technique: Hand scroll, ink and color on rice paper.
Description: Qui Ying uses color to express dimension and weather in his work, creating a painting which features central China's rugged and impressive mountain ranges.
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