A Study On The Bird-and-flower Painting Of The Wumen Painting School

After going through the Chinese painting history,it can be found that the freehand bird and flower paintings made brilliant achievements in Ming and Qing dynasties.Xu Wei started the freehand brushwork era of bird-and-flower painting and reached a peak in the freehand bird-and-flower painting of Ming dynasty.And then this freehand style was spread to Shi Tao,Zhu Da,Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou,and all the offshore masters.This long standing and well-established style has a profound influence.If dating this freehand style back into the more ancient history,it can be found that the bird-and-flower painting of the Wumen Painting School has an epoch-making significance and is a turning point.In the general evaluation of the Wumen Painting School,most scholars focus more on the achievements they made in the landscape painting,but less on the bird-and-flower painting,which is not in line with the achievements they made in the development history of bird-and-flower painting.On the one hand,through relevant literature and historical materials,this paper combs the historical contribution that the Wumen Painting School made to the bird-and-flower painting from the aspects of the school’s life background,artistic characteristics,creation ideas and influence,etc.On the other hand,as a practitioner of freehand bird-and-flower painting,starting with the painting language of painting works,the author analyzes the inheritance and development of painting language of bird-and-flower painting of the Wumen Painting School and studies the development status of its painting language.Firstly,the author makes a detailed discussion on the origin of the bird-and-flower painting of Wumen Painting School.From an objective point of view,the political,economic status and the seclusion ethos of the time laid the foundation for the formation of the artistic style.From a subjective point of view,the artistic accomplishment of the artist and their extensive absorption of traditional practice had a direct influence on the formation of this artistic style.Secondly,it makes a clear overview of the artistic achievements of the painters of Wumen Painting School.Shen Zhou’s natural and pristine style started the freehand bird-and-flower painting.Wen Zhengming further brought it into play with his elegant and delicate painting style.Chen Chun’s free-spirited style started the era of big freehand painting.The change of this kindof painting taste and aesthetic style just reflects the artistic achievements and development stages of the bird-and-flower painting of Wumen Painting School,and promoted the continuous development of freehand bird-and-flower painting.Then the author analyzes the artistic features from three aspects: the transformation of modeling style,the combination of picture form and the input of the spirit of freehand brushwork.The contribution that the Wumen Painting School made to the progress of freehand bird-and-flower painting is also demonstrated.The last two chapters discuss the influence of the bird-and-flower painting of Wumen Painting School on later generations and the reasons for the decline.The techniques and features of the bird-and-flower painting of Wumen Painting School got developed continuously.Ink freehand brushwork had a significant influence on the big freehand style of Xu Wei and yielded plentiful achievements.The boneless technique of sketch from nature had a rather big influence on Yun Shouping.The reasons for the decline are mainly reflected in the reduction of the painting style resulted from the commercialization of art and the rigid style caused by the one-sided emphasis on copying the old style.Through the combing of literature and the analysis of artistic works,the origin,artistic features and historical contributions of the bird-and-flower painting of Wumen Painting School are clearly revealed,which helps us to understand the turning role of the bird-and-flower painting of Wumen Painting School in the history of freehand bird-and-flower painting.