Art History
370/East Asian 355: Arts of China
Study Sheet
#12: The Qing Dynasty
Map marking ancient sites, modern cities and provinces
CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY:
The Manchus formed a powerful
nation on China's northern border during the late Ming period and moved into
China itself in 1644. Qing control was contested by resistance movements centering
on various Ming princes until 1683. To administer China, the Manchus adopted
Chinese institutions of government; they greatly admired the Chinese cultural
heritage, unlike the Mongols.
The Qing enjoyed its greatest
political success and prosperity during the reigns of the emperors Kangxi
(1662-1722) , Yongzheng (1723-1735), and Qianlong (1736-1795). The 19th century saw
military invasions by the Western powers, devastating rebellions, and large-scale
economic and social dislocation. Late Qing emperors, two of them virtual puppets
of Empress Dowager Cixi (d. 1908), proved incapable of coping with these problems,
and the dynasty was overthrown in 1911 by revolutionaries under the nominal
leadership of Sun Yatsen.
ART and CULTURE:
The Qing imperial court
patronized traditional Chinese culture and art, establishing craft workshops
and a painting bureau. The court also undertook massive literary projects: the
compilation of various kinds of dictionaries and encyclopedias, etc., and a
comprehensive reprinting of all existing works of literature approved by imperial
censors.
Calligraphy:
A major trend of scholarship
was "evidentiary research" (kaozheng xue), in which traditionally
transmitted ancient texts were rigorously authenticated by comparing them with
inscriptions on stone tablets (stelae = bei) and bronze vessels. These
often anonymous but securely dated inscriptions also inspired a new approach
to calligraphy, which arose as an antidote to the "orthodox" style
based on letters written by Wang Xizhi (See Study Sheet
#6). The style of monumental writings was blunt and forceful, in contrast
to highly articulated, refined strokes in the manuscript (tie) tradition.
Painters also experimented with brushwork inspired by the archaic inscriptions.
Artists:
- Deng Shiru
- Chen Mansheng
(nickname of a second Chen Hongshou; not the one active in the late Ming
period)
Painting:
EARLY QING
- Early Qing followers
of Dong Qichang took the imitation
of earlier masters of the "Southern school" as their point of departure,
seeking creativity within tradition. By the 18th century, this approach was
established at court and its practitioners known as the "Orthodox
School."
Artist:
- Other early
Qing artists, particularly Ming loyalists (yimin), developed their art in
closer contact with nature and express a more personal vision in their paintings;
they are sometimes called "Individualists."
MIDDLE (or HIGH) QING
- Through the 18th century,
the court regarded Western arts as interesting and useful. The Italian Jesuit
artist Giuseppe Castiglione, known in China as Lang Shining (1688-1766), created a hybrid style of
painting that found a place at court; he also designed the European-style
buildings in the Yuanming yuan"Summer Palace."
Artist:
- Professional painters
were particularly active in Yangzhou, an increasingly prosperous city of commerce
and culture where Shitao had spent his last years. Later called "Yangzhou
Eccentrics," they catered to the tastes of both wealthy salt merchants
and middle-class consumers.
Artists:
- Paintings by women, many
of them close relatives of male artists, also exist in considerable numbers.
Artists:
LATE QING
- Continuation
of Orthodox style in the court and a variety of styles elsewhere.
- Artist:
- Artists in the southern
port city of Guangzhou (Canton) produced a variety of pictures, including
on ceramics, for the foreign market.
- Artist:
- Lamqua (Guan Qiaochang),
an oil painter and portraitist, who studied under William Chinnery in Macao.
- Artists known as the
"Shanghai School" were active in the port city of Shanghai, which
opened to foreign trade after the Opium War and became the dominant commercial
center in the Lower Yangzi Delta after the Taiping Rebellion.
- Ren Xiong
- Ren Bonian
(also known as Ren Yi)
- At court, the Empress
Dowager Cixi was an amateur painter who specialized in depicting auspicious
subjects.
Ceramics:
-
- The imperial
porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen prospered through the 18th century. Decoration
in overglaze enamels evolved in many directions, giving rise to distinctive
categories such as "oxblood," "famille verte", "famille
rose", etc. Imperial wares of earlier dynasties were also expertly
imitated, such as Ru ware.
Non-imperial ceramic wares:
- Yixing ware, a reddish-brown
unglazed stoneware, made in Jiangsu province from the 16th century onward;
mostly teapots and desk objects. Some examples designed or inscribed by Chen
Mansheng.
- Dehua ware (also called
"blanc de chine"), a very white porcelain made in Fujian province
in the 17th-19th centuries; mostly figures of Buddhist deities.
Architecture:
- The imperial
palace in Peking took its final form. The Summer Palace
(Yuanming yuan), outside the city, was completed during the reign of the
Qianlong emperor but was destroyed by
Western troops in 1860.
The New Summer Palace was built in the late 19th
century by the Empress Dowager Cixi.
