The Transformation Of Figure Painting Styles In The Ming And Qing Dynasty Under The Influence Of The Missionaries

The relationship between the activities of missionaries and the evolution of Chinese painting falls into the realm of the study of the communication history of the Chinese and Western arts. Before the Ming and Qing dynasty, the mutual communication between them was too meager to be influential. Yet the introduction of the European painting after the Renaissance into China by the Catholic missionaries in the Late Ming and Early Qing period became a considerable shaping force to some degree for the evolution of Chinese traditional painting. The paper addresses the evolution of portraitures in particular through the analysis and comparison of the characteristics of images in three different phases. Firstly, it approaches the social background of portraits by the analysis of two representative works, and then studies the relation between the Bo Chen School and the early activities of the missionaries by the illustration of the historical formal link between them through in-depth interpretations of images, instead of giving any documentary explanation. Secondly, it explores the influence of the style of western painting on the images of Chinese painting, and how the local painters were affected by the western style in royal institute education. Lastly, through the analysis of the fact that the image style that suited the taste of petty bourgeois came into being in Shanghai during the Late Qing period by the incorporation of western elements on the part of Chinese painting, it concludes that the evolution of painting, which presents itself as image, involves the combinations of different elements, such as molding tendency, color experience, etc., which would mix in varied manners with the differences in time and the personal sensitivities of the practitioners to produce new style. Theoretically, such evolution is realized by the absorption of painting sources of similar or dissimilar systems in a visual level. Especially when painting experiences of different systems meet, such a route for the graduation of images is more likely to be taken.