Women's development

Pictures of beautiful women are also called? Lady painting? , is a painting with the life of upper-middle class women in China feudal society as the theme. Typical decorative patterns of porcelain, with ladies as the theme. It was first seen in Changsha kiln porcelain in Tang Dynasty. The rarity of ladies' paintings in Song and Yuan Dynasties was closely related to the prevalence of flower-and-bird paintings at that time.

Ming and Qing dynasties are the development period of ladies' paintings. In the early Ming Dynasty, due to the limitation of blue and white raw materials at that time, there were few pictures of ladies. Most of the ladies' paintings in the mid-Ming Dynasty reflected the lives of aristocratic women. Although the number is small, it has played a positive role in the later development of ladies' paintings. For example, the map of ladies in Chenghua Dynasty is not very detailed, but it is quite old. A large number of ladies' paintings appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, which to some extent reflected the current situation of social life at that time. Ladies' paintings in Qing Dynasty were particularly popular, but the styles of different dynasties were different. The Shunzhi ladies' paintings were well dressed, the Kangxi ladies' paintings were vivid and the Qianlong ladies' paintings were meticulous, all of which had unique characteristics of the times.

stage of development

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is the early development stage of ladies painting. The women depicted are mainly ancient virtuous women and fairies in myths and legends, and the prototype of such images generally comes from literary works such as poems, songs and folklores. When artists express these idealized women who are far away from real life, they are most concerned about how to show their inner spiritual temperament through the performance of women's external bodies. From the earliest extant Picture of a Lady and Gu Kaizhi's depiction of the Goddess of Luoshui based on Cao Zhi's Ode to Luoshen (Song copy) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, we can see that the typical beauty in Wei and Jin Dynasties is thin and distinct, with lofty and ancient charm.

Prosperity stage

As the most glorious era of feudal society, the Tang Dynasty was also the prosperous stage of ladies' painting. Painters pay attention to the rich and colorful real society with the optimism of actively entering the WTO, and are especially keen to show the leisurely lifestyle and monotonous and leisurely life mood of aristocratic women. Natalie and Zhou Fang are famous female painters in this period. Zhou Fang's "Painting of Lady Wearing Flowers" and "Painting of Lady Waving a Fan" represent the outstanding achievements of the court ladies' painting in Tang Dynasty in both form and spirit. Painters pay attention to realism and truth-seeking in modeling. The woman's face is round and full, her figure is plump and solid, and her temperament is elegant and noble, which shows the luxury beauty of royal women in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. This kind of beauty has a strong sense of the times, caters to the aesthetic taste of the big bureaucrats and nobles in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, attracts much attention and becomes the main artistic feature of the ladies' paintings in the Tang Dynasty. The Five Dynasties after the Tang Dynasty was an era of frequent regime changes, and painters inherited the tradition of the Tang Dynasty and made some changes in the creation of ladies' paintings. For example, compared with the ladies of the Tang Dynasty, the most remarkable change of the female geisha described in the ancient "Han Xizai's Night Banquet" is that the geisha's plump skin is healthier and more beautiful because of the lack of the lazy posture of the ladies of the Tang Dynasty. The slender figure of fairies in Ruan Gao's "Fairy Picture of Yuen Long" shows the plump and obese modeling scheme of the ladies in the Tang Dynasty. Even the fairies painted in the Tang Dynasty began to pay attention to the curvy beauty and charming posture of female characters.

Innovation stage

Song Dynasty is an era of relatively stable political power, developed economy and prosperous culture. In the creation of ladies' paintings, they inherited the prosperity of the Tang and Five Dynasties and made some innovations, especially in the subject matter, which expanded the scope of expression to an unprecedented extent. In addition to the aristocratic women in the court and the women in myths and legends are still depicted, the poor women at the bottom of life have also begun to attract the attention of painters, such as the women in Wang's Spinning Picture. Compared with the ladies written by Gu Kaizhi in Jin Dynasty and Zhou Fang in Tang Dynasty, they have no beautiful appearance, attractive figure, gorgeous costumes and noble status, but are just the most ordinary rural women in life. The old woman with patched clothes and trousers looks haggard and slow, and the hard life makes her look full of vicissitudes. The author expresses them in a realistic artistic way without beautification, aiming at praising their attitude towards life and unpretentious personality beauty, and at the same time expressing sympathy for their poor life. The picture reflects the artistic characteristics of the ladies' paintings in the Song Dynasty, and the figures are rigorous in modeling, accurate in proportion and vivid and natural in posture.

Recession stage

During the reign of Mongolian aristocrats in Yuan Dynasty, the special social situation and ethnic contradictions made painters take refuge in Shan Ye and devote themselves to landscape painting to express their seclusion feelings, which led to the decline of ladies painting in Yuan Dynasty. In the choice of theme, the painter did not inherit the tradition of actively expressing many women of various classes, identities and situations in the Song Dynasty, but stayed away from real life, searched for themes in historical stories and literary works, and inherited the characters in the prosperous Tang Dynasty? Good at accepting, indifferent, sweet and sincere, with soft and delicate skin and well-proportioned bones? What remains is similar to the characters in The Picture of Du Qiu, with a round face and phoenix eyes, a high nose, small and plump lips, and no excessive expression on her face. Full-bodied and fat with straight long skirt hides the curvy beauty of women's waist.

Stage of artistic maturity

The Ming Dynasty was a period of political stability in feudal society, and the painting of ladies gained great development with the active participation of literati and painters. In terms of subject matter, in addition to portraits, all kinds of women in dramas, novels and legendary stories have become the images of ladies that painters are most willing to create. Character modeling gradually tends to freehand brushwork with certain aesthetic color from figurative realism in Song Dynasty. A lady is graceful, dignified and beautiful, and her manners reveal the elegant and quiet beauty of women. In particular, they are happy among pavilions and wearing tight bright clothes, which enhances their slender and elegant posture.

Highest position

As the last dynasty of feudal society, the Qing dynasty saw the development of ladies' paintings. As Gao Chongrui said in "Song Xia Zhai Qing Ji" in the Qing dynasty, ladies' paintings were elevated to the supreme position above landscapes, flowers and birds? The world's famous mountains are better than water, and there are wonderful flowers and birds, but a beauty can have both. Although Jing and Guan splashed ink, Cui and Ai spent a lot of money, and they were not like a collection of literati. ? During this period, lady painting became more and more divorced from life and became a conceptual and stylized theme. The women in the painting, whether virtuous women, ladies, fairies or Mulan and Liang Hongyu who joined the army to practice martial arts, all have the appearance of repairing their necks, shoulders, waists, long faces, details and lips. Does the wind reveal sadness? , dejected little jasper charm, etc.

During this period, both court painters Jiao Bingzhen and Leng Mei, and literati painters Gage and Fei all showed women? Weak against the wind? Their behavior is their aesthetic pursuit. This stylization? Sick beauty? Modeling did not change until the appearance of Shanghai painter Ren Yi and others. The painter's enthusiasm for the creation of female images does not show respect for their personality, and women are only the artistic objects to be displayed. Therefore, the improvement of the status of women's painting in the Qing Dynasty reflects the decline of women's social image. Although the style of ladies' painting in Qing Dynasty lost the healthy and stretching style of ladies' painting in Tang and Song Dynasties, it absorbed some positive factors of literati painting in expression techniques, emphasized graceful posture, advocated elegant and elegant style, and incorporated the advantages of western painting into the works, which opened the way for the technical innovation of figure painting later.

Throughout history, lady painting has experienced the process of origin, formation and development. After more than 2,000 years of long evolution, it has become an excellent cultural heritage in China, providing us with rich experience in painting innovation today.

;