Study Of The Realism On Zhao Ji’s Meticulous Flowers-and-Birds Painting

The Song Dynasty is the golden age for the development of meticulous flowers-and-birds painting.With the overall characteristic of ’realistic’,the meticulous flowers-and-birds painting excelled a high level,especially during the reign of Songhuizong Zhao Ji when it reached its peak of realism.Speaking of the prosperous development of "realism",we cannot separate that from the specific social background and cultural conditions.In Song Dynasty,the concept of Neo-Confucianism prevailed,and the important ideas in the Neo-Confucianism,including harmony between man and nature,to attain knowledge by investigating things,and ethical education influenced artist’s creative idea and art development.Influenced by Neo-Confucianism,Zhao Ji attached great importance to the ethics of law,emphasized the development law of essence,and advocated ’realism’ in artistic creation,promoting artists to pursue realistic painting with impeccable details.Being realistic requires the painter not only to meticulously and precisely depict the external appearance of the object in accordance with its nature and laws,but also to accurately grasp the inherent laws,to express the artist’s subjective feelings,and to pay attention to convey the poetry mood of the picture,so that "all shape and color are natural with deep and historical meaning".Developed to modern times,Zhao Ji’s "realistic" spirit has inspired generations of artists who specialize in flowers-and-birds painting,with breakthrough and innovation mainly in theme expression,material and technique,and composition;its essence is to inherit and carry forward the traditional Chinese painting and to promote the further development of meticulous flowers-and-birds painting.