On The Consciousness Of Calligraphy In Huang Shen's Figure Paintings

Huang Shen, one of the representatives of"Yangzhou School", is an influential figure painter in the mid-Qing Dynasty with figure painting as his theme . He mainly reveals the life of working-class people in his figure painting, with keen observation and sincere feelings. In painting skills, Huang Shen emphasized on integrating calligraphy, especially the cursive form of Chinese characters, into painting, which differs greatly from other painters. He applies the ways of writing the cursive form of Chinese characters to his painting, resulting in"manifesting the essence instead of appearance, the content instead of the form", revealing the artistic features of handwriting in his painting, and thus making a valuable attempt in diversifying the presenting approaches to Chinese figure painting. His exploration into artistic calligraphy features in painting exercises profound influence upon the later painters.The thesis can be divided four chapters. In Chapter One, the author illustrates Huang Shen's artistic calligrapy features in his painting, beginning with discussing his masterpieces.In Chapter Two, the author analyzes the factors of Huang Shen's calligraphy consciousness development in his painting from three aspects, probing into the influence of these factors upon his artistic calligraphy consciousness development in painting. In Chapter Three, Huang Shen's individual nature of his calligraphy feature in painting is analysed by means of contrast and comparison. And in Chapter Four, the author indicates that Huang Shen's painting style exerts great impact upon the painting styles after him.