CHINESE ART-SUNG DYNASTY

Chinese Art-Sung Dynasty

Chinese Art-Sung Dynasty

Thesis Statement

China has the world's oldest living civilization. Its written history goes back almost 3,500 years, and the history told by its artifacts and artwork goes back much farther. Landscape painting got even better under the Sung Dynasty than it had been under the T'ang Dynasty that came before.

Introduction

The oldest known works of Chinese art include pottery and jade carvings from the time of 5000 BC. Jade is a general term used to describe either jadeite or nephrite, known as true jade. It's composed of several minerals. It's smooth and rich in texture, but it's also extremely tough. It can be off-white, or dark green, and sometimes has a reddish tint. Authentic jade is cool and never translucent. (Gascoigne, 2003) This paper discusses Sung Dynasty Art.

Discussion

The Sung Dynasty artists continued the traditions passed down from the Five Dynasties Period and in both the landscape art of the north - rugged, steep and precipitous - and in the south - alluring, misty and elegant - scenes were created in which one could travel, gaze, wander and dwell. In paintings of the Sung Dynasty, one could find animals, birds; flowers and humans that were not only accurately depicted in shape and manner, their internal substance, (Gascoigne, 2003) emotions, ideas, and aspiration were also captured by the artists.

The Sung Dynasty can be seen as the highlight in the development of traditional Chinese painting. The main themes of Sung painting were landscape "mountains and rivers"), birds and flowers and the living nature such as bamboos, birds, insects, horses and other plants and animals, and figure painting. The Sung Dynasty can be regarded the golden era of Chinese painting and pottery. (Gascoigne, 2003)

The philosopher Confucius described jade perfectly when he said: "It is soft, smooth and shining- like intelligence. Its edges seem sharp but do not cut- like justice. It hangs down to the ground- like humility. When struckm, it gives clear, ringing sounds- like music. The strains in it are not hidden and add to its beauty- like truthfulness. It has brightness- like heaven. Its firm substance is born of the mountains and the waters- like the earth." The material has been used since the Shang dynasty, which lasted from 1766-1022 B.C. They see it as a sign of wealth and authority and also as an object of beauty. The Chinese word for jade is yu. During the Ming dynasty, the Chinese people thought that only green or white stones were true jade, and the other colors were called fu yu, or false jade. It was classified into nine different colors during the Tsin dynasty, and has more recently been classified into many different categories. Jade is one of touchest stones in the world, near the diamond because of overlapping fibers within the stone. Tons of pressure is needed to crush some of the larger pieces of jade. A single cut through a one foot cube of jade would take several ...