Sung Dynasty

Painting in Sung Dynasty

Chinese Painting, styles, is often cited as the greatest achievement of Sung art. A royal painting academy was established, and many fine artists were patronized by the court. Bird and flower themes were always popular with the royal family, as were portraits of favorite pets and children. Many Sung paintings of these subjects became the standards by which later works were judged. Copied again and again through the centuries, the courtly floral and portrait styles of Sung painting have been continued by many present-day Chinese painters.The Sung period is best known, however, for landscape painting. In the Northern Sung period (960-1126), painters often favored a monumental style, creating awesome vistas. Such artists as Li Ch'eng (flourished 10th century) and Fan K'uan (flourished early 11th century) exemplify this style, with paintings of massive rocky cliffs punctuated by an occasional waterfall or a group of small figures. The brushwork in these paintings is often complex, with strokes repeated one over the other to create the illusion of texture. Also, at this time, the first wen-jen hua, or literati painting, appeared. The literati were amateurs who often disagreed with the styles fashionable at the royal academy and who produced their own distinctive landscapes. The Northern Sung practitioners of wen-jen hua preferred less grandiose subjects than did the official painters, often selecting a single tree or a rock with bamboo. This preference for simple subjects remained a characteristic of literati painting. with its many different schools and

The Sung royal family was forced to flee southward in the 12th century and reestablished itself at the city of Hangzhou (Hangchow). During this portion of the dynasty, called the Southern Sung (1127-1279), the emperors' painting academy produced a style of landscape known as the Ma-Hsia school. The name is derived from its two greatest artists, Ma Yuan and Hsia Kuei. Drawing on the expansiveness found in the Northern Sung tradition, they created views with less brushwork. Mists became an important device to suggest landmass and to give the painting a light, ethereal quality. Ma Yuan was often called "one-corner Ma," as he would restrict much of his painting to a single corner of the work, leaving the rest blank. This technique enhanced the sensation of open space and suggested infinity, qualities much prized in the Ma-Hsia tradition.

In sharp contrast to the serenity of the work of Ma Yuan and Hsia Kuei stands the brush painting of the Ch'an, or Zen, monks. Followers of this branch of the Buddhist faith believed in the spontaneity of artistic creation, often producing paintings in a few frenzied minutes. The style, characterized by free and often loosely defined brushwork, was dismissed by the official academy painters as the work of "crazy drunkards." The independence of the Zen painting school became an important model in later centuries when more artists became disillusioned with the purely academic styles.