To Explore The Two Song Exquisite Brush Flower And Bird Paintings

Character painting, in the history of Chinese painting, had always been the mainstream before Song dynasty until which paintings on mountains and waters as well as those on birds and flowers began to step in and slowly replace character painting to become the major branch. As the very beginning of the entire flower-and-bird painting history, Song dynasty’s painting on flowers and birds was also the origin. Therefore, tracing the source in our discussion on techniques of coloring in flower-and-bird paintings today when this branch of painting still prospers as ever would be facilitating the development of modern paintings on flowers and birds.The thesis, with the development history of flower-and-bird painting in South and North Song dynasties as the background, states the source of flower-and-bird paintings in both Song dynasties and its impact on later generations, and above all, it narrates specifics of the development of flower-and-bird paintings in those two dynasties. Then the second part selects important works on coloring from paintings on flowers and birds in South and North Song dynasties for separate analysis. Lastly, it concludes features of coloring from paintings on flowers and birds in both Song dynasties, compares them with their modern counterparts to highlight their differences, which may serve as reference for the modern flower-and-bird paintings.