The Language And The Semantics Of Portraiture From Late Ming Dynasty To Late Qing Dynasty

This paper discusses the language and context of Chinese portraiture in the period from late Ming dynasty to late Qing dynasty,and from a practical perspective,we will focus on the analysis of "what" the portraits from that period of time represented and "how" the people painted these portraits.Based on the available images and documents,in this paper we aim to draw inferences about the following questions: How the artists completed their work;What sequences the artists followed when drawing facial features;Whether the artists realized the progression of their techniques and skills of making realistic portraits when vast amount of portraits were made at the time;How the artists’ pursuit of techniques reflected by their work;Besides techniques and skills,what other aspects of art these artists tried to go after;How the literati painters and folk artists in the field of figure painting learned from each other;What the literati painters and folk artists each intended to seek and achieve by their work of art;How the artists distinguishes forms of portraiture and whether the contemporary classifications of portraiture could be applied for that time period;How the language of portraits was inherited in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries;How theoretical knowledge of art built the support and foundation for practice;Whether the techniques of painting for portraits had a directional development.In the next part of paper,we will attempt to reconstruct the circumstances that were required to finish portraits by analyzing their language: The relationship between the artists and the figures of portraits and the effect of their distinguishing relationship on the representation of portraits;The way that people used to build their own characters through portraits and how the artists expressed their ideas with the help of portraits.Generally speaking,literati paintings were the peak and orthodoxy in the history of Chinese paintings,because the realistic portraits needed to mainly focus on how to portray specific figures,instead of being a media for the artists to express themselves freely.Therefore,when the literati paintings became popular,the realistic portraits were just viewed as regular jobs for professional painters,and thus professional painters’ social status and impact on art could not be compared to literati artists.The main point of this paper is to try to categorize portraiture as a class of art by itself,and to discuss portraiture and literati paintings separately from the aspect of expressional language and context of portraiture.Portraiture and literati paintings each had their own depth but on the other hand,they echoed each other,built the spiritual world for painters and literati,and represented the art level for that period.Meanwhile,by organizing the portraits from Late Ming dynasty to Late Qing dynasty,we could also explore the further functions of portraits,like how portraits built the character,the role of cultural identity between the painter and the subject in promoting the expression of the work,and how they could find and built their identities through the portraits.The creation of portraits together with the documentary materials form a cultural event,which vividly reflects the mutual responsibility of the literati of that era,which is a cultural exchange,the flow of emotions,is alive and vibrant,is a real and moving event.We go to great lengths to make these images on paper have a short life,and as an inescapable problem in figure painting,we return to portraiture itself,to the subject of the painter’s expression,and the initial launching point of creation in the creation of a specific portrait.Through the writing of this essay,we can have some thoughts and inspirations on these issues in our practical creation.