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Narrative Figures in the Art and Aesthetics of Form: Selections from the History of Chinese Painting
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Dates: 2009/10/01
~ 2009/12/25
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| Gallery: 210 (Permanent Exhibit, rotate the display objects every three months) |
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In China, certain events surrounding legendary figures, wise sages, famous officials, and rulers of old are not only recorded in texts, but also have been transmitted to later generations in the form of illustrations. The medium of painting, for example, allows audiences to easily grasp the content of a story by means of its concrete pictorial representation. When the written record is interpreted through the mind and hand of the painter, a reciprocal relationship is formed between the image and text of history and legend.
No one knows when the first narrative figure painting was done, but it is said that the royal ancestral temple (Ming tang) of the Zhou dynasty (11th c.-221 BCE) court was already decorated with wall paintings of historical subjects. Furthermore, some surviving Western Han (206 BCE-8 CE) wall paintings also deal with themes from history and legend. With the rise of Confucianism as the foundation of state during the Han dynasty, painters who worked for government agencies or the court often illustrated stories from history and legend to serve didactic or moralistic purposes. By the Six Dynasties period (220-589), Daoist thought rose in popularity and broke from the confines of Confucianism, resulting in an increase in the number of deities and immortals portrayed along with Buddhist and Daoist figures as well as narrative paintings on literary themes. With the unification of the country in the Tang dynasty (618-907), China's power rose to new heights and emperors valued the didactic function of art. Court artists were often commissioned by their rulers to eulogize meritorious officials by portraying them or recording important historical events. In the Five Dynasties and Song period (from the 10th to 13th centuries) techniques for depicting landscapes, trees, and bird-and-flower subjects matured and were fused with narrative figure painting. With figural forms, compositional designs, and background arrangements set off in a new-found sense of atmosphere, painters were able to create even more precise and complex works. With the fall of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and into the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911), many stories became quite familiar to audiences, so representations of plot detail and figural expression gradually declined as artists and audiences focused instead on stylistic features.
This exhibition on narrative figures is divided into the following three sections: "Stories from History," "Stories of Deities, Immortals, and Daoists," and "Stories from Buddhism." The first deals with didactic historical themes meant to educate or admonish, such as Bian Zhuangzi killing tigers, Yu the Great controlling floodwaters, and Concubine Ming leaving China. There are also tales and anecdotes of famous scholars or literary subjects, such as "Returning Home," "Pavilion of the Old Drunk," "Literary Gathering in the Western Garden," "Searching for Verse on Ba Bridge," and "Han Xizai's Night Revels." The next category features Laozi, the founder of Daoism, the famous alchemist Ge Hong, and such immortals as Maonü, Magu, Liu Haichan, and Dongfang Shuo. The other section includes such Buddhist figures as the bodhisattva Guanyin, the Chan founder Bodhidharma, and the famous layman Vimalakirti. It is hoped that these works from the National Palace Museum collection can help audiences reflect on the skill of the artists and also catch a glimpse of the richness and variety to these figures and the stories behind them.
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