A Theoretical Study Of "Four Kings" Antique Paintings In The Early Qing Dynasty

In the middle of the seventeenth century,Chinese society underwent great changes,and the Qing Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty.Under the strong advocacy of the ruler and the influence of the political,economic and cultural environment,the paintings of the Qing Dynasty continued the style of the literati paintings of the Ming Dynasty,and the Southern School of Painting flourished.Among them,the "Four Kings" in the early Qing Dynasty played a leading role as the main pulse of the painting circle.The painting thought of "Four Kings" is inherited from Dong Qichang’s ancient thought of reforming from ancient times.They summed up the painting techniques of predecessors and developed a set of standardized and systematic painting theories,which have a unique historical significance for the development of traditional Chinese landscape painting.In terms of painting creation,the styles of the "Four Kings" are all through the way of "antiquity" to appreciate the ancient meaning of the sages,especially in the artistic creation,the pursuit of the plain and innocent artistic ideal of the famous masters of the Song and Yuan Dynasties.At the beginning of the 20 th century,under the influence of the "Art Revolution",the landscape paintings of the "Four Kings" were rejected and criticized by the academic circles.The fundamental reason was their "conservative" painting style.However,with the expansion of the field of modern art history research and the process of academicization,the research on the "Four Kings" antique problem has revived.The problem is inseparable from the development of history and the influence of society.The main research content of this paper is the connotation of the "Four Kings" antique painting thought,combined with the "Four Kings" antique art works and historical materials,to make an in-depth analysis of their antique painting thought.First of all,this paper analyzes the era background and painting tradition of the formation of the "Four Kings" antique painting ideas,and explores the reasons behind their antique ideas.Secondly,it analyzes the ideological connotation of the "Four Kings" in their respective antique paintings,and combines the style characteristics and evolution of the "Four Kings" antique works,including their respective characteristics of brush and ink,composition,coloring and so on.Finally,it summarizes the historical significance of the ancient painting thought of "Four Kings" and its enlightenment to contemporary landscape painting by dialectical method.