Teacher Packet: Chinese Brushpainting (.pdf) - Asian Art Museum ...

Slide 14
Brushstrokes: Styles and Techniques of Chinese Painting
Flowering Plants and Trees
Chen Chun (1483-1544)
Ming dynasty, dated 1537
Handscroll, ink and colors on paper
B70 D4b
Birds and Flowers comprised one of the major categories of Chinese painting and, like Landscapes and
Figure Painting, was represented by two major stylistic divisions: a carefully painted, colorful, realistic
style (gongbi); and an expressionistic, predominantly ink style, called xieyi or idea writing.
In this painting, Chen Chun has arranged the branches of flowering plants and trees in a loosely
structured composition. The plants bend and sway pointing to and from each other in a sort of
rhythmic dance. Chen's interest in linear rhythms is underscored by the inclusion of short poems
within the fabric of the composition. Poetry, painting, and calligraphy, the Three Perfections are all
fully integrated.
The picture is not so much a group of botanical specimens as a poetic expression of the beauties of
nature. Chen captures the personality, you might say, of each plant with his brushwork. Plum is stiff
and thorny with fragile flowers clustered close to the stem while camelia stems curl under the weight
of their heavy flowers and dense leaves. The dense, dark foliage of pine and cypress is expressed in
dashes and dots of ink and color.
Chen uses several types of brushwork in this painting (see Chart B), including the two techniques
of baimiao (outline method) and mogu (boneless technique). He uses color always in the boneless
manner, such as in the camelia flowers where one or two strokes of color wash is enough to suggest
each of the petals. There are no outlines nor carefully controlled layers of color. On the other hand,
the baimiao technique seen in the painting of the narcissus and plum flowers, consists of outlines
exclusively. Bamboo is a special plant to the scholar-painter. It is a symbol for the scholar-gentleman
who bends but does not break in the wind, and the painting of it is a regular exercise in xieyi
brushwork. Single strokes of the brush held at an angle form the leaves and darker, drier strokes form
the jointed bamboo stems.
17 Asian Art Museum