Royal Flower-bird Painting Of Song Dynasty

Since Chinese painting gradually developed into different branches, flower-bird painting had solely experienced the long process from budding, maturation to sublimation. By Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty, meticulous-style flower-bird painting had developed into unprecedented palmy days and become almost perfect in realistic depiction, artistic imagery creating and painting techniques. In early Northern Song Dynasty, flower-bird painting mainly inherited the tradition from the Five Dynasties, and during this period imperial painting academies and fine art mainly focused on royal flower-bird painting, and the outstanding representatives included Xu Xi and Huang Quan, who were famous for their larruping styles. Huang Quan's magnificent style featured by elaborate depiction and strong colors was more favored by imperial painting academies. Later artists like Zhao Chang, Cui Bai and etc. reformed Huang's style and developed imperial flower-bird painting up to a new level. In late Song Dynasty, promoted by Zhao Ji, Emperor Hui of Song Dynasty, royal flower-bird painting reached the peak of Song painting in the painting academies. Such style lasted in the palace of Southern Song Dynasty and flower-bird painting maintained its prosperity with lots of excellent artists and works.As an orthodox painting style earlier than literati painting style, the royal painting in Song Dynasty has long gone, but some of its good characteristics never went out of fashion. Influenced by the Neo-Confucianism of that time, the royal paintings showed objective view on and care about the reality. Such pursuit for realism, which is almost rigorous, still has significance in caring about and expressing the reality. In fact, Chinese painting has always pursued for realism. From Jin Dynasty and Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty, the purpose of painting had always been showing extrinsic characteristics and intrinsic essence of things in a most realistic way, and painting had gradually become mature in this pursuit. Artists'care about the reality never falls behind the times. Impacted by realistic western painting, we are also making deeper reflection on traditional "realism". For example, China Realism has persisted in digging out deeper meanings from traditions and stuck to its root for a solid foundation.Royal flower-bird painting in Song Dynasty reached a highly mature level in painting techniques, which later artists can hardly surpass. For example, Huang Quan's royal meticulous painting style, Xu Chongsi's royal boneless painting style, and even the good blending of meticulous painting style and ink-and-wash style by Zhao Ji, Emperor Hui of Song Dynasty. Its influence on modern painting is very profound. Inheriting and innovating Song painting style requires diligent work on materials, techniques and concept. Thinking on and innovation of painting still continues today. A "poeticization" phenomenon, which endows objects with meaning and integrates with poetry and calligraphy to express subjective idea, occurs, and introduces poetic imagery into flower-bird painting.The natural, realistic and vivid creation of the royal painting of Song Dynasty offers direction and courage to modern care about the realty. The significance of the royal painting of Song Dynasty to Chinese flower-bird painting, as Greek civilization to the western culture, is a peak difficult to overstep. Meticulous-style flower-bird painting of Song Dynasty has greatly influenced modern meticulous-style flower-bird painting. Its significance for Chinese modern artists has deposited as solid meticulous-style painting skill. As sketch is the basis for design, meticulous-style painting is the basic for "describing things as they are" and contains profound traditional culture. Today purely studying on royal painting is considered old-fashioned, but the classics that flourished a thousand years ago shall not be put aside. Only by subliming the meticulous painting techniques, the pure colors and the quiet poetic imagery into the aesthetic style of meticulous-style painting, seeking for changes without changing the essence and developing with inheritance, can we pass down the treasures of Chinese civilization to our future generations.