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wildbrush's art.to.day - you entered my world of art history -

Comparative Advancing Art History     
 of Pigments and Mediums     
in European and Asian Cultures     

CHINA

8000 B.C., China tribes were already settling and civilization had began it's development on the Yellow River plain, at the Delta, where Peking is now. This is the same latitude as Trenton, New Jersey, where I was born. This plain extends a thousand miles down to Shanghai.
About the same time farming started and domestic dogs and pigs were kept. Grain was the first harvest of these peaceful Hsia people, just like Egypt at this time, but with a lot less people and a little cooler. They also had pictograph writing.

5000 B.C., Egypt starts smelting bronze and building pyramids.

4000 B.C., China, water and lacquer paints were developed, the water based were fired on clay, the Ning-Po lacquer from the Rhus Vernicflua tree, was painted on wood.
Egypt made water, wax and lime paints, France and Spain made turpentine and mastic paints, Morocco made an alcohol based paint called sandracca, from a tree sap. India made dyes and lacquers from trees and scrubs that were alcohol based. Alcohol paints were winning in the paint wars, and would stay the leader for three thousand years.

3500 B.C., China, many different kinds of clay were available, by this time white clay was rated the best, this clay rivaled the great kaolin clay from the opposite side of the known world, England. Flint was found in these clay mines, the Chinese were to become great miners, but never as great as the Egyptians.

SHANG DYNASTY

2000 B.C., High quality carving in bone, ivory, jade and marble were found from the Shang-Yin period, bronze was cast in molds, big time. This period was based at Anyang, Honan, the heart of china on the old Ho River. It was to be a feudal society of kings and nobles. Fine silks were already cultivated from the silkworm "Bombyx mori". Tapestry rugs of wool and felt were an advanced art, the best wool coming from the Kansu region of Tibet. Eight colors on one rug, rose, red which turned to tan, three blues, golden yellow, brown and orange. Egypt was into painting murals on walls, China would be covering the walls with tapestry.
Cotton and dyes were imported from India, wool and felt were imported from Mongolia. Artists were painting in water colors on silk, the bronze casters were the best in the world, ordinary household items were made of bronze with pride, in design and quality.

CHOU DYNASTY

1122 B.C., Anyang was destroyed by the Chou people of the west, they started a dynasty that would last until 256 B.C.. They wrote "The Book of Changes", which included the Yang, or the active and the Yin the passive, represented by long and short lines, or a circle divided by a wave line, colored red for Yang and black for Yin.

722 B.C., Confucius, believed the good life would come only to those who fulfilled all their moral obligations to the state, community and the family. Nice guy, he came about the same time as Homer, and was just as important. Art and bronze work were at the bottom of the pendulum's swing, the wars were over, people were again working in the arts, it would improve until a western warring state took them over, the mighty Ch'in.
The simple Taoist priests at this time who started a movement to simplify life would become a cult of magic that practiced alchemy by the end of the Han Dynasty.

CH'IN DYNASTY

249 B.C., The head of the Ch'in family became the first emperor of China, he started the "Great Wall" and building canals. Heavy taxes made him unpopular and the Han Dynasty took over.

HAN DYNASTY

207 B.C., The Han Dynasty lasts until A.D 220. We have a good record of the Han, one reason was the custom of burying clay figurines with the dead, representing the times. These were good times, silk was traded with Rome. The art's were flourishing, Ning-Po lacquers on wood, mass cinnabar was carved, a luminescent green fluorite was carved into bowls and cups. Bronze, silk, and fine china, were glazed in colors never seen before, cobalt and zinc were at the alchemists cutting edge. Lead was the paint protector against water, red lead was also the choice of the Phoenicians for painting their boats.
Exploratory mining was big, silver was added to bronze to make black bronze. The things people do when their not at war. New pigments were found and devised, an iron black was used to dye silk for trade in the Mediterranean area. India supplied lacquer and colors until they cultivated their own tree sap lacquer. Paintings and portraits were hung in their homes. Their homes were like later pagodas, three or four stories high.
They never got very far in architecture, they only had wood to work with, lots of clay though, nice tile roofs.
It seems like similar minerals and materials are found on opposite sides of the continent.

SIX DYNASTIES

A.D. 317-589, All of northern China was overrun by Tatar tribes.

SUI DYNASTY

A.D. 589-618, Buddhism was dominant, 3,792 new temples were being built, sculpturing reached the high standards again and things were looking good.

T'ANG DYNASTY

A.D. 618-907, T'ang T'ai-tsung defeated the Turks who tried to take Ch'ang-an. Ch'ang-an was on the other side of the Yellow River from Anyang. These weren't the European Turkish, but the Eastern Turkestan people of the oasis. Basically, Eastern Turkestan is a drainage-less basin surrounded by high mountains. The central portion of this vast area is the arid Takla Makan Desert, where rivers disappear into salt marshes. Both north and south of the desert are a series of oases that are the backbone of the trade routes linking China with the West and India. These oasis cities were Buddhist communities, all patrons of art, making countless images in clay as stone was scarce. Frescoes were painted in the Indian tradition, with some changes. Ajanta shading was now band after band of solid color. White and black jade were prized by the Chinese and found along the southern oasis route.
Art stayed on the high road, hundreds of artists were hired to paint the Buddhist grottoes and sanctuaries, lacquered objects and pottery, scrolls, portraits, all showed good brush work. The Chinese style of brush work, ink on silk, with very little color, the "good brush" technique.
The canons written by Hsieh Ho gave directions on painting great paintings, the poet-painters followed, departing from religious themes. The religious painters were adding new colors to their interpretations.

SUNG DYNASTY

A.D. 960-1279, One of the emperors, Hui-tsung, became a poet painter and started the Academy of Artists, with a special insignia and all. Competitors worked on idea projects of the emperor and were rewarded for ingenuity and style. He was killed by the Golden Tatars who made their capital in Peking. The poet-painters moved south and kept working. China's greatest works were now to be done in the simplest strokes. Scrolls were big, 10, 20, 30" long and 1 or 2 feet high, religion was out of the picture, story telling was in. Pottery was at a high point also, higher than it had ever been before, crackle glaze was new and well controlled.

YUAN DYNASTY

A.D. 1234-1294, The Mongol invasion ended the Southern Sung dynasty of artists, but the artists were not at war so their excellence continued. Genghis Khan, the Moslem Mongol captured all of China, up to and including the Black Sea and Persian Gulf. At least three times bigger than Alexander's empire. Marco Polo came through at this time, trading with the world, color and portraits were introduced to a people that were just now reaching a "dry-brush" approach to interpretation, color and line were still at a cartoon stage, they were two or three hundred years behind Europe in some respects, especially color.
Cloisonne enamel was introduced to China, as practiced by Byzantine craftsmen, China became a great center for these highly colored vases and dishes.

MING DYNASTY

A.D. 1368-1644, A Buddhist monk lead the Chinese army to victory. Peking again became the capitol and the great imperial palace was built, perhaps the grandest palace in the world.
Color was added to the dry-brush, factories for porcelain were re-established and for three centuries the finest porcelain ever seen was made. Blue from imported Persian cobalt and red from copper, zinc yellow and flawless glazes. This was also the period of the famous "five-color" enameled ware, and unglazed, intricately carved, colored porcelains. Woodblock printing was a new medium used in the making of encyclopedias, religious texts and copybooks for artists.

CH'ING DYNASTY

A.D. 1644-1912, The Manchus, who conquered Turkestan and Tibet, extended their rule to Indo-China, the Ch'ing dynasty would encourage artists to continue but only some porcelain ware remained showing the perfection of the past.

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