| According to art history, Chinese painting can be divided into three types—character painting, landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting. And young woman painting is an important component of character painting. As is known to all, the character painting in Tang Dynasty has reached the summit of Chinese art history, among which the accomplishment of young woman painting is quite outstanding. Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang are the representatives of this age. Zhang Xuan is the initiator of beauty painting and Zhou Fang is the real master of this character painting whose characters are plump and healthy. His paintings are powerful, which is in consistent with the spirit of Tang Dynasty at that time. After Tang Dynasty, flower-and-bird painting and landscape painting which represent the awareness of literati are formed by themselves and develop rapidly, while character painting is decaying gradually. Although young woman painting has made certain development in every aspect, it no longer has the great impact as the splendid"beauty of Tang Dynasty". It is until late Ming Dynasty that people seem to find the Tang style in the painting of Chen Hongshou. The faces of his characters are always square or bell-like which impress others with their strong appearance. In addition, his unique painting style is formed due to the fantastic models and vigor lines in his painting.Lines, modeling and combination of lines are important shaping elements of a painting. By the comparison of the paintings of Zhou Fang and Chen Hongshou, three differences could be detected, that is the quality of line painting, combination of lines and character modeling. First, the quality of line painting. Line is the soul of Chinese paintings. As to the application of lines, Zhou Fang's"Qinsimiao"is vigorous, delicate, powerful and relaxing, while Chen's"Yousimiao"seems to be somewhat gloomy but is powerful. Second, combination of lines. Lines can change into various types and different arrangement of lines will bring different sense of beauty. The character painting of Zhou Fang focuses on painting the reality and does not has much change on the arrangement of lines, while the lines in the painting of Chen Hongshou are in parallel which is quite attractive. Third, character modeling. In the Tang Dynasty, people admire fat and the characters in paintings are all plump. However, the characters in Chen's paintings are individualized who are odd and out of proportion.After the flourishing Tang Dynasty, realistic and mundane themes become more and more popular. And as for painting, specific and realistic styles are welcomed more warmly. Zhou Fang is a royal. Most of the models in his young woman painting are the ladies in guanzhong area, so his paintings display the elegance of the ladies in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. As a literati painter in late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Chen Hongshou experiences not only the social change but also collapse of his family. The social environment, his personal experience and character all help form his unique painting style. Undoubtedly his peers also give him some enlightenment. Besides, it believes that he might refer to some folk cultures in modeling the"odd shape"characters in his painting.The young woman painting of Zhou Fang influences the young woman painting circle of late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the two Song Dynasties and the Ming and Qing Dynasty because of its strong sense of times. Based on the young woman painting style of Zhou Fang, Chen Hongshou further makes some innovations. He develops the modeling language of character painting and emphasizes the representation and symbolization of characters which lay a solid foundation for the development of character painting of Qing Dynasty, even the development of contemporary character painting. |
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