How Chinese landscape paintings reflect changing art styles through history
From divine visions to expressions of the self, the evolution of ink landscape painting reflects wider changes in Chinese art over centuries
Western art history is a parade of styles. Baroque gave way to neoclassicism; realism was followed by Impressionism. The history of Chinese art, on the other hand, is marked by imperial dynastic eras.
For centuries, the imperial court was the main tastemaker in China, so looking at Chinese artworks in the context of the dynasty in which they were produced “is coherent with political and artistic changes”, according to Elaine Kwok Yin-ning, professor of art history at the Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University.
One way to track how art in China changed over the centuries is through the evolution of the major genre of ink landscape paintings, or shanshui, which translates as “mountain-water”.
Landscapes first appeared as a distinctive class of paintings during the short-lived Sui dynasty (589-617) and began to blossom in the Tang dynasty (618-907).
Of special note is the alluring “blue and green” style developed by Li Sixun (651-715) and his son Li Zhaodao (675-758), who were related to the Tang imperial family. They created fantastical landscapes with bold outlines, sometimes with gold, and filled with shimmering layers of azurite and malachite mineral dyes.