Chinese painting peaked in the Song Dynasty. In the entire art history of ancient Chinese paintings, the paintings of the Song period had the most remarkable features of extensive depiction of the real life. The painters created many artistic techniques that were closely linked with the society in a variety of imposing styles. The painting styles, forms and theories in the later Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were all evident in the paintings of the Song Dynasty, a testament to the maturity and full flourish of the China painting in that period. Many important breakthroughs in painting techniques were made in the Song Dynasty. Emphasis was laid on the human figures’ emotions, intriguing plots and the creation of distinctively characterized images. Painters specializing in flowers, birds, mountains and rivers tried to produce a pleasant artistic conception, while stressing ingenious, true-to-life portrayal of the images. Scholar-official painters also played a positive role in boosting the art of painting, with remarkable contributions to subjective expression and the exploration of calligraphic effect. Court paintings enjoyed tremendous development, and enriched the nationwide painting boom, registering accomplishments that are not to be underestimated.

following the achievements in the Sui, Tang and the Five Dynasties, further progress was made in the field of painting during the Song Dynasty. Imperial court painting, scholar-officials’ painting and folk painting, each exhibiting distinct features yet keeping influencing, and infiltrating into others, jointly defined the painting of the Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty unified the country, ending the turmoil caused by feudal states that tore the nation apart and ushering in a period of social stability. As commerce and the handicraft industry underwent rapid development, urban civilization flourished. Zhao Ji, the eighth emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty otherwise known as Huizong, went down in history for his political incompetence and obsession with art. When the Northern song was overthrown by the Jin Dynasty of the northern nomads in 1127, emperor Huizong and his son Zhao Heng, or emperor Qinzong, were captured and jailed by the invaders and died miserably years later. After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial court retreated to the south where they established the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) with Lin’an as the capital city. Immigrants from the north exploited the resourceful south and together with the locals created a period of sustained economic and cultural developments. Bianliang (Kaifeng, Henan province) and Lin’an (Hangzhou, Zhejiang province), respective capitals of e Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, were both prosperous commercial cities. Apart from aristocrats, the cities were home to large numbers of merchants, handicraftsmen and ordinary urban dwellers, boasting an extremely colorful cultural life. Painting was incorporated into commerce and the handicraft industry, with painters selling their works in marketplaces. In the brisk fairs in Bianjing’s Daxiangguo Temple held five times a month, there were stalls offering books and paintings. In the night market of Lin’an, painted fans were sold. Many restaurants in Bianjing, Lin’an and other cities were decorated with paintings to attract customers. When arranging banquets, urban residents could rent screens, hanging scrolls and calligraphy works to decorate. Pictures of Door God and Zhong Kui were tremendous popular at the end of year to cater for the needs of Spring Festival celebrations. As the handicraft industry made strides, block printing developed and became widely adopted, with Bianjing, Lin’ana, Pingyang, Chengdu and Jianyang rising to become centers of the printing industry. Many books and Buddhist scriptures were illustrated. Printings of the Song and Jin period still available today such as Buddha portraits, Mantras of the Dharani Sutra, Pictures and Eulogies of Sudhana’s Journey to the South (Foguo Chanshi Wenzhu Zhinan Tuzan) and Zhaocheng Tripitaka (Zhaocheng Zang) all feature exquisite craftsmanship.

Scholar painting, which first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, evolved to become a major artistic trend in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty. At the time, there was a widespread interest in collecting and reviewing paintings among the scholar and scholar-officials. Quite a few of them took up painting as well. Like writing poems, they considered painting to be a way of expressing their unique self. Scholar painters had their own thoughts on the choice of subject and form. They trailed a new blazing in painting as they inscribed phrases and poems to decorate their paintings. In the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, Chinese plum blossoms by Zhongren and Yang Wujiu, bamboos by Wen Tong, bizarre trees and stones by Su Shi, cloudy mountains by Mi Fu and his son Mi Youren and daffodils by Zhao Mengjian were particularly famous. One important contribution made by scholar-officials of the Northern Song Dynasty to scholar painting is their theoretical research. Ouyang Xiu proposed to pursue an aesthetic atmosphere of “desolateness and asceticism.” Su Shi believed that it is childish to judge a painting by its formal resemblance, denying the notion that painting mainly aims at imitating nature. As a Chinese tradition, scholar-officials had long formed a network, through which scholar painting and the ideas of Su Shi and others spread rapidly, even to Liao and Jin territories ruled by ethnic minorities, becoming a precursor of the scholar painting of the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

Northern Painters and Southern Painters .
In his book Famous Paintings Record of Past Dynasties, Zhang Yanyuan wrote, shanshui (Chinese landscape painting) was initiated by Wu Daozi and matured with Li Sixun (651 t0 718 AD) and his son Li Zhaodao (birth and death years unknown). None of Wu’s original paintings have survived, but several major original works of two Lis have endured the history of thousand years and are still available for us to enjoy. Li Sixun’s Sailing Boats and Pavilions (Jiangfan Louge Tu) features tourists strolling by riverside, azure skies, boats on the misty river and exquisite buildings at the foot of hills, scenes that symbolize vastness and tranquility. The tree trunks, twigs and leaf veins are painted by using the “double outline technique.” The rocks are outlined in vigorous strokes using the center portion of brush without obvious radiating faint inks on both sides of strokes. It is a technique of Zhan Ziqian, a Sui Dynasty painter. But the trees and rocks are drawn in great detail as if they were copies of nature. Main colors used are blue and green, but the turning points of ink lines are decorated with shining gold, a sharp contrast to its overall color tone. The painting embodies the lucidity and colorfulness exhibited in Zhan’s Spring Out (You Chun Tu). Li Zhaodao further improved his father’s style and reached a new level of sophistication. His Traveling in the Spring Mountain (Chunshan Xinglv Tu) and Emperor Xuanzong’s Journey to Sichuan (Minghuang Xing Shu Tu) are both painted on vertical silk scrolls with light colors. The paintings feature changing mists, remote valleys, rushing waterfalls, lush forests and leisurely tourists on horsebacks. Despite the small size of the scrolls, the grand composition of magnificent scenes is all vividly depicted.

The “outline technique” means to draw the contour of the images with ink lines. Usually two strokes, either side by side or one above another, are drawn, merging in centre. Then transparent colors are used to create a shade before brilliant, nontransparent mineral colors are applied. This approach is thus known as “double outline technique.” It is a traditional painting technique. Before the Song Dynasty, employed this method in their landscape and figure paintings and paintings of flowers and birds. “Double outline” is also evident in Chinese calligraphy to imitate many important original works. After the Tang and Song dynasties, many painters devoted themselves to landscape. !. They used the main body or the side of brush to make strokes to imitate grains of rocks and veins of tree barks, an approach that is known as the “stroke technique.” To depict grains of different rocks, several painters developed a number of highly individualistic stroke techniques, such as Hemp-Fiber Strokes of Juran, Straight Rubbing Strokes of Guang Tong and Li Cheng and Raindrop Strokes of F “hemp-fiber” and “raindrop” were first used by art critics to describe the respective characteristics of different stroke types and they have since been integrated into the terminology of Chinese painting.

The transition period between the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty is called the Five Dynasties (907 to 956 AD). It was in this brief period that the status of landscape was defined. We live by nature. But for Chinese painters it also embodies the dao (the truth). The Northern School represented by Jing Hao and Guan Tong was famous for their grand composition of large mountains and broad rivers. However, the signature style of the Southern School represented by Dong Yuan and Juran is their simplistic depiction of southern China, a world of constant misty, drizzly rains and light breezes. Traditional “blue and green shanshuis” declined in popularity. Scholar painters began to emphasize the use of brush and the application of ink. Ink-and-wash landscapes, without the use of colors or with only light colors, reached its maturity. Painters also began to explore the philosophical dimension of their paintings.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Zen was popular in China and painters of Southern China advocated the spirit of fiat and innocence. Dong Yuan and ]uran’s paintings, though mountains were high and grand, did not have a sense of magnificence. Mi Fu praised their paintings and wrote, “their paintings have a clear and moist scent, with innocent outlines,” and “Juran’s paintings with exuberant lands are full of life and freshness. Running mountains extended into the distance and on the valleys between them dotted with farm houses with doors open and a small path in front winding its way to the depth of the valleys. Trees lined in all directions, rocks standing in the middle of rivers beating waves against, and grasses dancing in the wind. As a Buddhist monk, Juran had an apathetic attitude to life more than Dong Yuan would, and thus, Juran’s paintings had fewer and lonelier people and many deserted sceneries. His paintings made people feel more isolated from the society. The artist concerned more on the universe in his heart and mind and much less on the materialist world at large. The scholars in the generations followed admired Juran and treasured his paintings, mainly because they loved his Zen philosophy.

Painting history always associated Jing, Guan, Dong and Ju with the Five Dynasties and the early Northern Song Dynasty. They actually inherited and represented the highest level of sophistication of landscapes of both Northern and Southern China. They had a unique place in the history of landscapes. Northern China style had many followers in the North Song Dynasty and produced many masters. Because southern China style was promoted by scholars, they gained popularity in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, whenever discussing landscape, Dong and Ju would be mentioned and the northern China style of “panorama shanshui” was gradually forgotten.

Mogao caves are built on the cliffs between Mingshao Mountain and Sanwei .Mountain to the southeast of Dunhuang, 1618 meters long in the direction from the south to the north. The building and carving started in the 2na year of Fuqin Jianyuan period of the Jin Dynasty (366 AD) and lasted for about one thousand years. All the dynasties during the one thousand years history participated in the building of the caves and the most active period is the Tang Dynasty. There are 45000 square meters of murals and 2000 colored sculptures survived. They are the rgest and best preserved collections of Buddhist cave arts and treasures in the world. Because Dunhuang was in a strategic point on the traditional Silk Road on the west frontier of China, it was an important junction for the exchange of people and culture between China and the western regions (xiyu).

The Dunhuang Mogao cave treasures include architectures, color sculptures, murals and as well as books and record. Its architectures, murals and sculptures have symbolized the Buddhist arts of China as three integrated parts. The colored sculptures and murals in the north Wei and west Wei periods (535 t0 556 AD) exemplify the highest achievement of early period of Dunhuang arts. There are 36 caves belonged to this period. Murals are painted around on all walls and ceiling as well as pillars supporting ceilings. Apart from a few decorative oil paintings mosT are to illustrate Buddhist legend stories and the birth of Buddha, and the cause and predestined relationship. There are many images of Bodhisattvas, figures of celestial beings and pictures of musicians and dancers. For example, Prince Sattva Feeds Himself to the Hungry Tigress in cave 254, Conversion of the 500 Robbers in cave 285, Buddha’s Preaching in cave 249, The Nine-colored Deer Saves the Drowning Man in cave 257 and the Buddha’s Life Stories in cave 290 are all delicately painted with magnificent and rigorous compositions, masterpieces of very high artistic value and great historic achievement.

The murals of Dunhuang of this period have still kept many original elements of Buddhist arts in terms of subjects portrayed and painting methods adopted. The Buddha’s Life and Jataka Stories are all directly from the Buddhist teaching classics. Similar murals and subjects are also found in caves in Indian. During this early stage of mural arts in China, the images and features from a foreign land were still kept unchanged as they y were viewed as representatives of gods and accepted as the spiritual essence of Buddhism. For example, Le half naked images of Buddha and various gods are prominently portrayed on these murals. Actually all symbolic postures have followed and copied their original Indian formulas. The “Indian coloring method” of using dark and light shades to depict a sense of three dimensional effects is another direct example that traditional Indian painting method has been adopted. The traditional postures and the images of half nakedness were regarded as essential part of Buddhist teachings and therefore were directly portrayed without any modification. However, the more trivial details in murals were more or less left to the imagination of individual painters who could paint according to their own experienc4 0f the hunting scenes are very much like the traditional Chinese paintings. They were consciously or unconsciously changing the more perceptual elements of Buddhist murals such as clothing and body features. Musicians, celestial beings, and minor Bodhisattvas had become half Chinese and half Indian. But in overall, the will to add true realism into the more conceptual composition of Buddhist murals were inhibited during the north Wei period because of the earnest respect and tremendous admiration for the religion of the foreign land. Consequently the mural figures of that period are very bold and unconstrained, and very conceptual and colors are generally very lucid. The overall effect is very decorative.

May
Quietly advent
My heart Tightening

5.12
That tragic day
Like a The shadow of the great
Getting closer

Once sheltered the days
Once, shake the earth
Once, the mountains crumble to bits
Had blocked the flow

Once, swallow a flower
Once, shielding the birds
Once, the red field
Once, the black clouds

Once, all good things
destruction under the devil’s hand in its
Once, and the hearts of 1.3 billion live
Road torn a deep wound together

The valley in May
Filled with a whimper
May the rivers
The tears flowing
Fields in May
Blood spill

The sky in May
Echoed the teen 

This scenario earthquake shake
Let me see, mountains and rivers
Was so effemination
This sudden disaster
Let me feel that life
It was so fragile
This is not limited to the huge shadow
Let me see, a
Have never seen the
Hideous face

But
This strong earthquake, but
Let me see, the indomitable human Bashu
love setting, there is
Beating heart as well as family, friendship
Love, as well as the great teacher-student situation

However, this is a huge disaster, but
Let me feel, what is
True feelings
1.3 billion pairs of eyes, and accompanied the afflicted area is crying together
1.3 billion pairs of arms, together with the wave of refugees
1300000000 heart, then hit a beat

Was to take 1.3 billion, and then a small trickle, come together to form a vast expanse of water
In addition to 1.3 billion to be, and then a big disaster, near zero
Today, the first anniversary of full speed, and the trauma of the disaster area
Still refractory, the scar on my heart tear
Still, seems to make pain

Our laughter, still some suppression
Our facial expressions, often the shadow
Our memory, often did not dare look back
Our eyes, from time to time tears For years

With a bouquet of sunshine, burning the candle blessing
With a flowers in full bloom miss the feelings of
Ray with white clouds, filled with memorable lines
With out singing, sounded the bell to hold a memorial ceremony
Presented to - the disaster area, as well as in the Wind
May the sky, and the dead

Members of Circle to Circle of Friends:

AD May 12, 2008 pm 14:28:04 — Wenchuan earthquake. Wenchuan’s War, the entire nation’s wounds. When unexpected disaster, the test in the face of life and death, misery and suffering in the face of sorrow and suffering in the face of all the Chinese people love their own, sing one after another Da Yin Xi Sheng, Seamless love farewell . This earthquake occurred in the days to come, because there is great love, we do not abandon, we do not give up, one after another to create the miracle of life. Because there is great love, that human nature shine through the ruins of the rubble, in the darkness, out of a flower and a bright future. Because there is great love, we hand the sea, so that death and disaster look prohibitive, so that a candle lights another, polishes the hope of tomorrow. Because there is great love, we concentrate all the power of hope lit by warm, bright light with the hope that work together, building a better home. This great love is full of rational, publicity of justice,strength, love the world, virtue and the Quartet. Sichuan earthquake in the first anniversary, let us send love grief. With our grief to mourn the passing away of people who, with our love to help those people survive, with our move to redefine the meaning of life, and to wash our reflection of our soul is full of dust .. …. we must not only learn to cherish their lives, to cherish those around us, common people love all things and all people. We are grateful to learn how to make a small little bit of love, cohesion trickling into love. As long as everyone is to pay a little love, the world will become a warm and human ……

The most outstanding painter of the Tang Dynasty is Wu Daozi, and he is also considered by most collectors as the greatest talent of never known before and ever since. The great poem, Du Pu called him Painting Saga. Famous Paintings Record of Past Dynasties wrote: “Wu was walking on the time line of artistic achievement but he could not see Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei in front of him and turning his head back no body was following.” He was alone by himself. The great poet and painter of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi said, “for poets, you could not go beyond Du Zimei (Du Pu), for writers not beyond Han Yu, for calligrapher not beyond Yan Zhengqing and for painter not beyond Wu Daozi. All the developments from the past to the present completed without exception.” Almost all the historic books on painting and its history have admired his achievement and agreed without exception that he is a “Painting Saga for hundred generations”.

Wu Daozi (685 t0 785 AD) was born in a poor family in Yu Xian of Henan Province. He started learning calligraphy from a young age and later turned his attention to painting. At age of twenty his talent started to shine. He went to the Capital Luyang as amateur painter and soon afterwards, the Xuanzong emperor learnt his reputation and appointed him as a court scholar. The period Wu Daozi lived was a period during which the Tang Dynasty was at peak of its great prosperity and the Empire enjoyed an unprecedented economic power and artistic freedom and creativity. In the two capitals, Luyang, the eastern capital and Chan’an the western capital, assembled the culture elites and the best, like twinkling stars brightening each other. Famous Paintings Record of Past Dynasties wrote: “up to now, the Tang Empire had enjoyed its prosperity for nearly two hundred thirty years, all the talents assembled and enriched each other and the most active was during the Kaiyuang and Tianboa periods of Xuanzong’s reign,” when the important Tang painters, Wu Daozi, Wang Wei, Zhang Zao, Li Sixun, Cao Bai, Han Gan, Chen Hong, Xiang Rong, Liang Lingzhan, Zhang Xuan, and Yang Huizhi lived.

Wu Daozi almost spent his entire life devoted to the murals of religious matters, including paintings depicting Buddhism and Taoism teachings. For example, on the north corridor of western pagoda at Qianfu Temple, he created a Buddhisattva in his own image. Thereafter, Han Gan did the same in his religious murals, Prostitute Xiao Xiao Writing on Chastity and A Column of Masters. They tried symbolically to break the restraints of strict religious teachings and to be creative in a divine world. He would not like to act as the guardian of religion but as an ordinary painter to be able to enjoy the free spirit of artistic expression. He even brought the aristocrats into the Hell: a Teaching Illustration. Wu was also a very successful landscape painter. Once the Xuanzong emperor consigned him to go to Sichuan to study the sights and views of local importance and specifically asked to bring back sketches of places he visited so he could paint them on his returr He returned from his assignment but without a single sketch. The Xuanzong emperor was very disappointed and annoyed by his carefullessness. However he came to the court calmly without any fear and worry and painted without any hesitation. Before the eyes of Emperor and his court officials, hundred miles of the roaring Jialin River and vast land of exuberant Sichuan appeared in a lightening speed. He finished the whole painting within one day. The court was astonished.

Wu Daozi was a very prolific painter and there are ninety three painting collected in Xuanhe Collection of Paintings, including, Presentation of Seal to the Emperor, Zhong Kui with Ten Fingers, Peacock and Ming Emperor, Celestial King with Pagoda, the God Guardian of Buddhism Scripts. Among them, Celestial King Delivering a Son, is his most important painting, depicting the story of the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, the son of King Shuddhadana, and is now in Osaka Municipal Museum of Art. The Portrait of Buddha is now in Toufuku temple, Kyoto Japan. Both of them are considered to be copies in his name only. His other important work, Daozi Book of Scroll Paintings, is a collection of ink and brush sketches painted on paper and it is believed 50 pieces remained today but it was smuggled out of China in 1911 and lost from general public ever since. Wu Daozi had a great enthusiasm and pursued vigorously in the world of arts, very much like Michelangelo during the Renaissance. Famous Paintings Record of Past Dynasties wrote: “when Wu Daozi painting, his arches like blades, his lines like pillars and beams, all without the help of rulers and compasses.” When he doing figures, however large, he could start with either hands and armS or legs and foots, still being able to balance and control the overall composition. With the combination of meticulousness of a calligraphy and creativity of a great imagination, he painted many vivid pictures of beyond comparison, full of rhythm and colorful magic. His paintings did not deliberately exaggerate the flash of the heaven and the horror of the hell, and his inspiration mainly came from his thorough observation of earthly reality. His bold and unconstrained style of painting formed a remarkable contrast to the grace and elegance style of his predecessors Gu Kaizhi. However there is a common feature linked them two together, in which they both imitated the principle of calligraphy, in particular, the exquisite use of pen and the attention to the overall composition. Wu Daozi had been trained as a craft painter, and he was also a student of the great Tang calligraphers, Zhang Xu (date of birth unknown but he was most active during the reign of Xuangzong) and He Zhizhang (about 659 t0 744 AD). He was especially fond of “caoshu style” (a rapid cursive writing style of calligraphy) and his paintings radiated with vibrant caoshu rhythm of “writings”.

Described by the mother of art portraits
40 great artists painted mother portrait “recently published in the UK, it will be unique to Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso and other great artists, 40 of the portraits of their mother paint cleverly arranged together on a number of arts interesting story of creation. May 10 is Mother’s Day, is of special significance in this festival on the eve of, let us approach these great artists and they are described by the famous portrait of his mother, to share their extraordinary artistic fun.

     Some of the great works of classic artists, often portraits of their mothers. In art history, many masters instead of just painting pictures father mother. Among them, more will be high to get the mother’s appearance with exotic, Van Gogh oil painting from memory to the mother green eye. In reality, mothers bring up children, but in painting, but it is the mother of the child created, so that these classic portrait painting, showing a unique style.
Famous painter Whistler’s portrait is the most famous painting “Whistler’s Mother”: 67-year-old mother sitting face, foot on the footstool, gazed in front of eyes, it is difficult to speculate what. It is said that the day, such as Whistler models, but the model failed to arrive, so instead of her mother agreed to let his son sat model paint. It is this blood on the close relationship between emotions, so that mothers often describe the subject of Whistler, and only the mother before they are willing to do for the children quietly fixed a few hours. Relatively speaking, the artist’s portrait of his father but seldom, as men busy with their livelihood, the demand in the family is often absent. It appears the mother, to let children paint make empty gestures, the expression of motherly love is a very general way. Therefore, Whistler’s mother in a letter to the relatives said: “wow, my dear son, when a sudden hail ‘Oh, Mom, I completed it how the United States and ah!’, I really sincerely happy about it. Then , because the picture he would kiss me. ”

Ingres real and vivid portrait of a mother

     These artists often emphasized the realistic portrait of the mother, rather than the pursuit of beauty, so that a more realistic image of the mother. Painter Ingres portrait painted mother is his mother Anne in 1814 to Rome to visit him when, full of artists so vivid portrait of the characteristics of realistic, based on the hope that his heart looked like a mother walked down from the canvas. Stand before this painting, moving, passing out of this love fully exposed, the mother’s love for his son and son against mother’s love, all mingled in the screen. And the painter Christian Lepage Jules Bass painted the mother’s portrait, it is very beautiful, almost a piece of real photos. In fact, Lepage has always been an active follower of photography. These mothers described their son, as a true and even more “complete.”

Gauguin portrait style unique mother

     Unauthorized use of a number of artists painting their own to repair defects of the reality of life of Gauguin into a lot of energy will be portrayed in the foreign atmosphere. Painted  Gauguin portrait of his mother, his mother from a photograph of a young man. His mother deliberately exaggerated facial features, thick lips, paint more, painting a broader nose, which may be found in order to stress his mother exotic Spanish descent. Van Gogh is under the mother’s photo to painting a portrait of his mother, but he suspected the original black-and-white photos too monotonous, so to describe the mind in accordance with the memory image of the mother. People see in the screen, his mother has a pair of warm and beautiful green eye, against the background of perfect skin, the screen filled with a touch of sadness and warmth.

Cassatt portrait of a fantasy mother

     There are some well-known artists are on display life of leisure is the mother of the image of the rich. Almost never the Cezanne portrait painting, but painting of his mother and sister Mary of normal everyday life, playing the piano, needlework. His father, a son, not in favor of painting the bankers, have also been painted in the painting on the right side of the chair, but was later obliterated by the paint. American Impressionist painter painted mother for the most eye-catching portrait. She was deeply affected traditional Japanese painting, with a total disregard for the great masters of Western art the way the rules for the mother-portrait, the painting showing a modern sense of refreshing, highly decorative and deeply subjective. Whole mother portrait reflects strong effects of light and shade, filled with a sense of fantasy.
Hockney portrait of a mother desperate loneliness

   Different artists and the growth of the living conditions of experience, often portraits of their mothers in the manifest. In the painting “My mother, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, in November 1982″, the painter David Hockney photo collage with a portrayal of a cheap raincoat wearing women of the United States, she looks very loneliness. Corner of the screen, the artist was wearing expensive shoes in the foot has been deliberately painted in art. Artists want to use this unique way of painting reflected the plight of his mother, as well as in life, facing despair, Hockney even in his father’s funeral drew a portrait of his mother. In addition, the famous painter Durer for his mother had painted portraits, he hoped that in order to reflect a cruel and honest life - to marry 15-year-old mother gave birth to 18 children, only three survived . The mother died a few months, Durer also had her portrait painted. “Even the most subtle and intravenous lines and must not be ignored.” Through the mother’s face, we can understand how she had lived a life .

Han Huang (723 t0 787 AD) painted Five Buffalos and the masterpiece was considered as a “rare treasure of all periods” by artists and critics during the Yuan Dynasty. Han Huang was an amateur painter while his main occupations were agriculturist and court official. His speciality was countryside scenes, and farmers and farming animals. His Five Buffalos is painted on a long paper scroll and they are separately drawn, each with a unique vivid posture, grazing quietly along, running with head up, mooring with leg stretched, licking at back, and gently strolling along, and no figures on the painting. All of them look joyful and contented. The composition is balanced and proper ratio and perspective are followed. The sketch lines are simple and solid, and full of varieties. Color is light but depicting a strong sense of heaviness. The whole picture is splendid and lavishly beautiful, a delight to enjoy.

The emperor portraits by Yan Liben, and the fashionable Qiluo and Saddle Horse Characters displayed the newly found generosity and confidence of the great Tang Dynasty. In the Imperial Palanquin, we have discovered the grace, solemn and elegance of the imperial court and from the paintings of Zhang Xuan, Zhou Fang, Han Gan and Han Guang, we have witnessed the affluent and opulent living standard of aristocracy in particular and the general public at large. All of these depict a golden age of economic prosperity and artistic creativity.

The most famous painters associated with “Qiluo Characters” are Zhang Xuan (date of birth unknown and active career period was from 713 t0 755 AD) and Zhou Fang (date of birth also unknown and two active career periods were from 766 to 799 and from 785 t0 804 AD). During the reign of the Xuanzong emperor (712 t0 755 AD), Zhang Xuan had served as a royal painter and he was famous for his skill on figure paintings. Records indicate he was also keen to explore various ways to paint other subjects such as pavilions, forests, birds and flowersl But he was most devoted to depict court ladies of opulent and rich livings. His paintings are associated with many social activities such as spring out, snow day sightseeing, dressing up, hiding and seeking, and music instrument playing. Zhou Fang was born into an aristocrat family. “Xuanhe Collection of Paintings” wrote: “he often visited the rich and beautiful and was good at painting nobles with opulent living, depicting the beauty of plumpness.” Both of their works have been among the favourites for collection by the emperors of many dynasties, especially the artist Huizong emperor of the Song Dynasty. He collected seventy or so works of Zhou Fang alone. Only through his copies, do we still have the opportunity to see the most representative paintings of Zhang Xuan, Guo State Queen Spring Out and Court Ladies Preparing for the Newly Woven Silk.

Guo State Queen Spring Out is a magnificent scroll. The painting was completed during a time when it was fashionable to pursuing new trends and styles to depict the newly found confidence and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. However Zhang Xuan adopted a more realism approach for the painting, resonating with the epic poem of Du Fu “the Beauty”. It describes an occasion when Guo State Queen went on a sightseeing tour. A column of saddle horses and their riders stroll along and are randomly packed to various small groups. The painting is focused to depict the figures portrayed, using strong but slim lines and balanced colors, rich bright but fresh and elegant, meticulous but without dullness. Gua State Queen are elegantly dressed and accompanied by servants and court ladies, enjoying the sights of a spring day out. There are nine characters in the painting, eight horses, and a baby carried by a court lady, adding some vivid breezes of life into the picture. The Tang Dynasty is renowned for the love of saddle horses, from the emperors, court ladies, and noblemen to court officials alike. Zhang Xuan displayed a great deal of skill in painting horses and earned himself a famous reputation for the talent. The red horse ridden by Quo State Queen is so vividly portrayed and is given a special name Hualiu by historians, like his master, radiating grace and egance .

The paining is about spring outing by a group of aristocrats. There are exuberant fields with luxuriant spring sunshine. Mountains stand on the background. Ripples of water show the reflection of light. Lucid plants have announced the arrival of spring. Clouds fly smoothly anmd lazily through the mountains. Embankment extends into the distance. An arch bridge can be vaguely seen at background. Gentlemen are riding horses and walking and ladies are boating in the lake, all towards the waterfall in the centre of the painting. It is drawn from a bird’s eye view from the top. The near and far sections come focused towards the middle section, which has helped to create a rhythm of harmony with full depth of the painting. Composition is constructed along a diagonal line across from the bottom left to the top right, and it is also the direction of spring water running through the painting with mountains and embankment on each side of this invisible line, full of live and vibrancy of spring. The use of green and blue illustrates the spring colors of plants and trees. This has formed its own unique characteristic and is called “blue and green style.” The other dominant color is golden yellow. Therefore this style is further developed and called “golden green landscape” (~in bi shanshui). All the mountains, plants and stones have sketch lines only and spaces are filled with colors. The lines are very fine but full of variety.

Most art historians agreed that Spring Outing had marked a new era of Chinese painting and ended the traditional view that “characters should be larger than mountain and water can not cover major part of a painting”. During the Han Dynasty and the period of Gu Kaizhi, landscape appeared in a painting mostly in an abstract form. In the landscape painting of Zhan Ziqian, people can see his efforts to try to restore the order of nature. While admiring the wonderful nature in exuberant and lucid spring, the painter suddenly realized the original place V all human should occupy and his relationship to the nature world should be. He used many mineral pigments for the painting. However in comparison to the silk painting of the Han period, he almost used realistic spot coloring to contrast the distance between different subjects rather than the traditional abstract technique of level brushing which he only used to paint clouds around the mountains. The balance of the two created a realistic vivid world with a dreamily sensation.

1. Pablo Picasso
2. Vincent van Gogh
3. Leonardo da Vinci
4. Claude Monet
5. Salvador Dali
6. Henri Matisse
7. Andy Warhol
8. Georgia O’Keeffe
9. Wassily Kandinsky
10. Peter Paul Rubens
11. Rembrandt
12. Michelangelo
13. Edouard Manet
14. Paul Cezanne
15. Joan Miro
16. Titian
17. Pierre-Auguste Renoir
18. Marc Chagall
19. Gustav Klimt
20. Raphael
21. Paul Gauguin
22. Goya
23. Paul Klee
24. Edgar Degas
25. Albrecht Durer
26. Jackson Pollock
27. Diego Rivera
28. Pieter Bruegel
29. Piet Mondrian
30. J.M.W. Turner