On The Evolution Of The Time Representation Of Female Images In Gongbi Paintings To Female Aesthetics

Female theme paintings occupy a pivotal position in the historic development of Chinese gongbi painting.The female images in a particular historic period is highly intertwined with the aesthetic standard of female at that time.The aesthetic concepts can subsequently reflect the social status of women and the role women played in the society.It can experience the degree of recognition towards the aesthetics from a perspective of women,and the converse influence of women to the aesthetics from the paintings of that era.As part of the patriarchal society,the constant male domination in China never faded during the historic development of Chinese art and aesthetic activity.This influence,however,is continuously overlooked and underestimated,until the introduction of feminism into China after its development in Western societies.Only then,discussions about the female images in Chinese painting based on feminism theories start to emerge.In this thesis,the female images in the period of feudalism,the 1950 s to the 1970 s,and the period after the Chinese economic reform is analyzed.This thesis takes the chronological relationship as the longitudinal line,and the differences between coeval works,the latitudinal one,with specific works as the entry point.The development of the aesthetic ideas of those periods can be clearly seen in the female images depicted in contemporary Chinese gongbi paintings.As described above,the thesis will be divided into three parts.In the first part,the entry point is the painting Court Ladies of the Former Shu,painted by Yin Tang of Ming Dynasty.By interpretation of the postures,the customs,and the context of female images in the paintings,the ideal model of the female in the minds of traditional literati is abstracted.Traditional gender concepts,traditional female aesthetic standards and the recognition of female themselves towards the ideal societal aesthetics are also discussed.In the second part,Yan Jiang's painting Quizzing My Mom is used as a starting point.The status and changes of women's social role and social status in the fastchanging era of the 1950 s to the 1970 s are discussed,as well as the aesthetic concepts towards females.The third part,with Jiaying He's Qingming as an entry point,two comparisons are presented.The first one is the drastic difference towards female aesthetics and emotional expressions between different male gongbi painters;and the second one,the differences of representing similar themes between male and female painters.By analyzing Chinese gongbi female images painted in different historic societal backgrounds,this thesis discussed the chronological development of aesthetic standards towards the female,the cognitive development of male and female painters regarding female images,and the limitation of that contemporary development.Hopefully,this thesis can achieve the goal of getting a more comprehensive understanding and a complete expression of female images during the creation of modern Chinese gongbi paintings.