A Research On The Grotesque Style In Artist Chen Hongshou 's Paintings

The aesthetic craze for grotesque in the paintings produced in late Ming Dynasty period derives from the decadent and dark society and Wang Yangming's (a famous philosopher in the Ming Dynasty period) idealism and other sects'influence. It is also the product of the aesthetic transformation which is characterized by loftiness, grace and righteousness, and it is the typical representation of aesthetic ugliness.Based on the previous studies of other scholars, taking the picture-narration as the starting point, based on the selection and representation of the pictures and the narrations, the paper emphatically analyses the unique figures'molding and the picture-narration model in Chen Hongshou's paintings. The most prominent grotesque embodiment in Chen's paintings lies in the unique figures'molding, the unique model of handling tableaus, and the ideas of showing the contradictory and miserable feelings. All of these embodiments represent the most prominent achievements in Chen's figures'paintings, and the most evident aesthetic grotesque pursuit, so they are the keys of the paper. The formation of the grotesque style in Chen's paintings contributes partly to Chen's affirmation and approval to the individual values, and partly to the society. The paper analyze the causes of forming the grotesque style in Chen's paintings from the following perspectives. From psychological perspective the paper arrives at a conclusion that Chen's figure paintings are mainly to extol those whom Chen admired and to express his grievous and sympathetic feelings. From philosophic perspective Chen's grotesque style derives from Wang Yangming's idealism and other sects'influence, and it embodies Chen's philosophy of life and is an overturning and a challenge as well to the classic and traditional paintings. From the sociological perspective Chen's grotesque style originates from the development of the times and the aesthetic conception. From the art-mouldologic perspective, the paper analyses the process in which Chen studied and portrayed the ancient articles and reaches a conclusion that Chen's grasp to the mould-making and his application are a great cause to his painting originality, at the same time the paper makes textual criticism about the influence of the folk art on Chen's grotesque style.This paper, starting from the details of Chen's paintings, strives to expand to the greatest extent, and to do textual research about Chen's life experiences and his mental and emotional changes, especially the detailed handle of the figures'facial mould, for instance how to portray the figures'eyes, and how to color etc, by all of which the paper concludes that Chen's grotesque style is influenced by the ancient articles and the woodblock paintings.Chen further merges and develops the relation between the pictures and their prototypes with his unique painting language which manages to solve how to widen the gap between the form language and the painting language. Chen ,as well, enhances the aesthetic taste and status of the Chinese traditional folk culture.