AH 0102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Xia Gui, Handscroll, Song Dynasty
12 May 2018
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Notes for Day 8: February 13, 2018
Landscape Painting 4: China Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and Korean Joseon Dynasty
(1392-1910)
Announcements:
• Journal 5 Prompt is now due on Friday
• Do museum trip and Journal 4, as well as visual analysis
Goals for today:
• Close looking exercise
• Finish group analysis of Chinese paintings
• Understand historical context of Korean Joseon Dynasty
• Think about painting of imagery landscapes versus true view landscapes
Close looking exercise:
• Are two paintings painted by the same painter:
• Both depict similar ideas
• The mountains are rendered the same way
• The brush strokes are completely different even though the composition for both are the
same
• Both show the differentiation of brush strokes in the types of leaves on the trees (light
versus dark strokes)
• The left one has a boat while the right one has no boat
• Both are painted with ink on silk; the left one appears different because age is a factor, it
might have aged to gain its specific condition
• There is a stark contrast depicted with the ink used for each element in the right image
but there is more unity in terms of the blending of the ink in the left painting
• The mood appears stark and ominous in the left painting but the mood is welcoming and
brighter in the right painting
• The left painting is more natural and accurately depicts the composition while the right
one is more theatrical and less realistic
• Xia Gui is the painter of the left painting; a follower of Xia Gui made the right painting
Group Visual Analysis Paintings:
1. Handscroll that shows the changing of nature from mountains to trees and streams; this
theme greatly depicts the shift from the Northern to the Southern Song Dynasty
2. Handscroll showing flying geese and geese hiding in a brush; the geese hiding in the
brush seem to depend on the safety of nature while the ones flying away are not in tuned
with nature
3. People in the painting that are moving towards the mountain; the mountain is more
defined than the ground level landscape; there is a strong division between the mountain
and the ground
4. Same painting used in the last exercise; dark brush strokes showing the jaggedness of the
rocks and starkness of the trees; mountain is pushed off and the ground landscape has a
higher scale; the people in this painting are bending over as if struggling with nature and
its strong forces
5. Painting depicts nature overpowering man; the man is a scholar and his servant following
close behind him; more depth in the rocks as well as the tree hovering over the scholar (it
looks to be over powering and infinitesimally large); the handscroll is used and the
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Document Summary
Landscape painting 4: china southern song dynasty (1127-1279) and korean joseon dynasty (1392-1910) February 13, 2018: journal 5 prompt is now due on friday, do museum trip and journal 4, as well as visual analysis. Goals for today: close looking exercise, finish group analysis of chinese paintings, understand historical context of korean joseon dynasty, think about painting of imagery landscapes versus true view landscapes. Korea; a lot of palaces were burned and homes were destroyed: manchu invasions: in 1630s, dynasty ends in japanese invasion and annexation of korea in 1910. Koran confusianism values: modesty, intellect, and purity were upheld by korean society and showcased in the objects that koreans created. Hangul alphabet: an gyeon (we don"t know his birth and death) was an active painter, follower of guo. Joseon culture: had very little buddhists paintings because buddhism died out by the rise of the.
