What Was the Silk Route?

What Was the Silk Route?

LECTURE

** Image map

What links this vast geography? Many things, but the first might beThe Silk Route, begun under the Han Dynasty in the 2nd century BCE.

What was the Silk Route?

Vast, interconnected land and sea trade route.
Merchants traveled along it, bringing goods in both directions, but also disseminating belief systems, namely Buddhism, and ideas about visual culture, art and architecture.

Painting traditions in China

Historical context:

Beginning of 13th century Mongol tribes invaded northern China from central Asia under the Genghis Khan.
By 1279 Genghis’ grandson Kublai Khan expanded the Mongolian empire and declared himself Emperor of China.
Established capital in what is now Beijing, concentrated in the North so Southern Song dynasty culture continued at first.
After they were colonized by Mongolians there was a rejection among Chinese scholars, artists and intellectuals of anything “foreign
This was difficult to do in explicit ways considering artistic practice was centered around the royal courts and Mongol rule was now the law.
There was always a “literati” or educated circle of artists and writers that worked at the court as members of the cultured class. The emperor himself would participate in calligraphy, poetry and painting as a sign of sophistication.
Once the Mongolians came to power during the Yuan dynasty there was an increase in the distinction between the art of these literati (who produced art as “civil servants” thus not needing to earn money through professional commissions) and the court painters who got commissions from the royal court.
At this point scholars and literati were no longer given these civil servant positions, forcing them to leave the Northern region where Mongolian rule was centered and where all government jobs were given out.

** Slide du hua

Du hua: “to read a painting”
The integration of calligraphy, poetry, and painting, scholar artists for the first time combined the “Three perfections” in a single work of art

** Image Han Gan, Night-Shining White [Tang dynasty (618–907)], ca. 750

An artist who traversed two domains- both court commissions and literati painting
Royal descendant of Song dynasty in the south, but became a Yuan court painter
Sometimes seen as a traitor, his status is often said to be noticeable in his artwork
The HORSE, the imported "celestial steed," treasured by early emperors and noble warriors, was a favored subject favored by leading Chinese painters for centuries before.
In the early Yuan period (1271–1368), when alien Mongol rulers curtailed the employment of Chinese scholar-officials, the theme of "groom and horse" became a metaphor adopted to plead for the proper use of scholarly talent
The famous saying of the Tang essayist Han Yu (762–824) was frequently quoted: "There are always excellent steeds, but not always an excellent judge of horses." Ie. There are smart scholars here, but their new rulers do not always match up

The addition of seals and comments by later viewers served to record a work's transmission and offers vivid testimony of an artwork's continuing impact on later generations.

Zhao Mengfu's painting was executed in early 1296 when Zhao had recently retired from serving under Kublai Khan

From the Metropolitan Museum of Artwebsite:

The aim of the traditional Chinese painter was to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but its inner essence as well—its energy, life force, spirit.
To accomplish his goal, the Chinese painter more often than not rejected the use of color. Like the photographer who prefers to work in black and white, the Chinese artist regarded color as distraction.
He also rejected the changeable qualities of light and shadow as a means of modeling, along with opaque pigments to conceal mistakes. Instead, he relied on line—the indelible mark of the inked brush.
The discipline that this kind of mastery requires derives from the practice of calligraphy.
Traditionally, every literate person in China learned as a child to write by copying the standard forms of Chinese ideographs.
The student was gradually exposed to different stylistic interpretations of these characters. He copied the great calligraphers' manuscripts.
He was also exposed to the way in which the forms of the ideographs had evolved. Over time, the practitioner evolved his own personal style, one that was a distillation and reinterpretation of earlier models.
The practice of calligraphy became high art with the innovations in the fourth century.
By the eleventh century, a good hand was one criterion—together with a command of history and literary style—that determined who was recruited into the government through civil service examinations.
Those who succeeded came to regard themselves as a new kind of elite, a meritocracy of " scholar-officials” responsible for maintaining the moral and aesthetic standards established by the political and cultural paragons of the past.
It was their command of history and its precedents that enabled them to influence current events. It was their interpretations of the past that established the strictures by which an emperor might be constrained. And it was their poetry, diaries, and commentaries that constituted the accounts by which a ruler would one day be judged.

Continued from the Met website:

These were the men who covered Night-Shining White with inscriptions and seals.
Their knowledge of art enabled them to determine that the image was a portrait of an imperial stallion by a master of the eighth century. They recognized that the horse was meant as an emblem of China's military strength and, by extension, as a symbol of China itself.
And they understood the poignancy of the image. Night-Shining White was the favorite steed of an emperor who led his dynasty to the height of its glory but who, tethered by his infatuation with a concubine, neglected his charge and eventually lost his throne.

** Image. Zhao Mengfu, Groom and Horse, 1296

The emperor's failure to put his stallion to good use may be understood as a metaphor for a ruler's failure to properly value his officials.

This is undoubtedly how the retired scholar-official Zhao Mengfu intended his image of a stallion, painted 600 years later to be interpreted.
Expertise in judging fine horses had long been a metaphor for the ability to recognize men of talent. Zhao's portrait of the horse and groom may be read as an admonition to those in power to heed the abilities of those in their command and to conscientiously employ their talents in the governance of their people.
When an emperor neglected the advice of his officials, was unjust or immoral, scholar-officials not infrequently resigned from government and chose to live in retirement.
Such an action had long been understood as a withdrawal of support, a kind of silent protest in circumstances deemed intolerable.
Times of dynastic change were especially fraught, and loyalists of a fallen dynasty usually refused service under a new regime.
Scholar-officials were at times also forced out of office, banished as a result of factionalism among those in power.
In such cases, the alienated individual might turn to art to express his beliefs. But even when concealed in symbolic language, beliefs could incite reprisals: the eleventh-century official Su Shi, for example, was nearly put to death for writing poems that were deemed seditious.
As a result, these men honed their skills in the art of indirection. In their hands, the transcription of a historical text could be transformed into a strident protest against factional politics - illustrations to a Confucian classic became a stinging indictment of sanctimonious or irresponsible behavior.
Because of their highly personal nature, such works were almost always dedicated to a close friend or kindred spirit and would have been viewed only by a select circle of likeminded individuals. These men acted as both policy makers and the moral conscience of society, so their art was highly influential.

Scholar-official painters most often worked in ink on paper and chose subjects— bamboo, old trees, rocks — that could be drawn using the same kind of disciplined brush skills required for calligraphy.
This immediately distinguished their art from the colorful, illusionistic style of painting preferred by court artists and professionals.
Proud of their status as amateurs, they created a new, distinctly personal form of painting in which expressive calligraphic brush lines were the chief means employed to animate their subjects.
Another distinguishing feature of what came to be known as scholar-amateur painting is its learned references to the past. The choice of a particular antique style immediately linked a work to the personality and ideals of an earlier painter or calligrapher. Style became a language by which to convey one's beliefs (both personal and political).

Zhao Mengfu epitomized the new artistic paradigm of the scholar-amateur.

A scholar-official by training, he was also a brilliant calligrapher who applied his skill with a brush to painting.
Intent on distinguishing his kind of scholar-painting from the work of professional craftsmen, Zhao defined his art by using the verb "to write" rather than "to paint." In so doing, he underscored not only its basis in calligraphy but also the fact that painting was not merely about representation—a point he emphasized in his Twin Pines, Level Distance.

** Image. Zhao Mengfu,Twin Pines, Level Distance, c. 1300

Zhao was a leading calligrapher of his time, set the course of scholar-painting by firmly establishing its two basic tenets: renewal through the study of ancient models and the application of calligraphic principles to painting.
In Twin Pines, Level Distance the landscape idiom of two Northern Song masters has become a calligraphic style.
Rather than simply describe nature as it appears to be, Zhao sought to capture its quintessential rhythms.
The characteristics of rocks and trees, felt by the artist and acted out through his calligraphic brushwork, are imbued with a heightened sense of life energy that goes beyond mere representation.

[In a long colophon on the far left of the scroll, the artist expresses his views on painting: "Besides studying calligraphy, I have since my youth dabbled in painting. Landscape I have always found difficult. This is because ancient [landscape] masterpieces of the Tang, such as the works of Wang Wei, the great and small Li [Sixun and Li Zhaodao] and Zheng Qian, no longer survive. As for the Five Dynasties masters Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, and Fan Kuan, all of whom succeeded one another, their brushwork is totally different from that of the more recent painters. What I paint may not rank with the work of the ancient masters, but compared to recent paintings I daresay mine are quite different."]

Because the pine tree remains green through the winter, it is a symbol of survival.
Because its outstretched boughs offer protection to the lesser trees of the forest, it is an emblem of the princely gentleman.
For recluse artists of the tenth century, the pine had signified the moral character of the virtuous man.
Zhao, having recently withdrawn from government service under the Mongols, must have chosen to "write" pines in a tenth-century style as a way to express his innermost feelings to a friend.
His painting may be read as a double portrait—a depiction of himself and also of the person to whom it was dedicated.
He said he also intentionally made mistakes (like switching location of mountains in landscape from East and West side, also his calligraphy, awkward paintings= perhaps his own decision to quietly oppose the government).

** Image(two slides) Techniques and Formats of Chinese Painting

Monumental Mode

The monumental effects in nature.
It is best accomplished in the vertical scroll.

The Chinese paintings of this time did not record specific views. What did they record? What did landscape art become a vehicle for?

** Image Fan Kuan, Travelers Among Streams, 11th c.

The ptg of the landscape had a history in the Daoism and the practice of wandering through the landscape for spiritual nourishment.

Daoism – means “path” or “way.” It is a philosophical and religious tradition that emphasizes living in harmony with the Dao (also spelled Tao).

It was thus taken a step further in the belief that if one could wander through a painted landscape the same effect would be achieved.
It also contained the ideas of Confucianism: the natural world was used as a metaphor for social order.

Confucianism - an ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE). As adopted by the Han Dynasty, it emphasizes social order with particular emphasis on the family.

The three major formats of Chinese ptg were established at this time: the mural decoration, the hanging scroll and the handscroll (remind them of the torana at Sanchi).
The ptgs do not record specific sites- the goal was to record the eternal essence of mountain-ness etc. “Nature is vast and deep; high intelligence is infinite and eternal.”
This painting set an important precedent for large works and a sense of monumentality
The composition unfolds in three dramatic stages, misty, waterfall, feeling of climbing, leaving human world
There is a sense of texture conveyed through brushstrokes
It was painted during the apogee of Chinese landscape painting
Most Northern Song artists worked for the imperial court, Fan Kuan was a Daoist recluse who believed nature was the superior teacher
He studied nature very carefully – the goal was to paint the essence of mountain and not the appearance of the particular mountain
The humans are small, nature is huge - Daoist ideal is nature uncorrupted by humans, harmony.

How is this ptg and other Chinese landscape ptgs closely linked to an absence of linear perspective? What is linear perspective? The ability of a Chinese landscape to allow the viewer to wander freely is closely linked to the absence of linear perspective. In Renaissance perspective there is a mathematical system for recording a single, fixed vantage point. The goal of Chinese ptg is to provide a view beyond what we normally see.

** Imagescompare with some Renaissance ptgs/linear perspective

Perugino, The Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter, 1481

Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi, c. 1474

Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)

Ghengis Khan. Kublai Kahn. KK pronounced himself emperor of China and founded the Yuan Dynasty.

The Mongols established their capital in the northern city now known as Beijing. The cultural centers of China, however, remained the great cities of the South, where the Song court had been located for the previous 150 years. Combined with the tensions of the Yuan rule, this separation of China’s political and cultural centers created a new situation in the arts.

The invasion was traumatic.
During the previous Song Dynasty, China had grown increasingly introspective.
There was a rejection of foreign ideals and the intellectuals focused on defining the qualities that constituted a true “Chinese-ness.”
They drew a clear distinction between their own people, whom they characterized as gentle, erudite and sophisticated, and the “barbarians” outside of China’s borders.
Now China was faced with the reality of “barbarian” occupation.
The introspection intensified.

The “art of the brush.” The literati painters.

The imperial court set the tone for the educated elite. During the Song Dynasty, painters finally achieved a status equal to that of court officials.

They set themselves apart from the professional painters whose art they believed was inherently compromised, since it was done to please others, and impure, since it was tainted by money.

“There was a nostalgia for the antique.”

** Image Zhao Mengfu, Section of Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains, 1296

(Yuan Dynasty)

A gift for a friend
The landscape is reminiscent of the friend’s home city.
But the mountains and trees are not painted in the accomplished naturalism of Zhao’s own time, but rather in the archaic, but elegant manner of the Tang Dynasty.
Reminder - The Tang Dynasty was a great era in Chinese history, when the country was both militarily strong and culturally vibrant. Through the ptg, the artist not only expresses nostalgia for his friend’s past, but also for China’s past.

** Image Ni Zhan, The Rongxi Studio, 1372. Yuan Dynasty

Ni Zhan is often referred to as part of the late Yuan dynasty painters, born after the death of Kublai Khan
Ni Zhan took up many of Zhao Mengfu’s ideas, and many later painters similarly looked to the painting style and lifestyle he created as their model
It’s important to realize that it was a way of life rather than just an aesthetic that these painters were interested in – an idealized, romanticized painter too gifted for public service and the greater world.
Ni’s work is done entirely in ink and depicts the lake region in Ni’s home district
He is using a dry brush technique, where the brush is not fully loaded with ink and lets the paper show (or “breathe”) through the brushstrokes.
The result is a ptg with a light touch and a sense of simplicity and purity.
Ni’s spare, dry style became associated with a noble spirit.

** Image compare/contrast Travelers Among Mts and Streams with The Rongxi Studio