APAH: Unit 5 - Chinese, Japanese, & Korean Art

Jade kong

Jade kong (culture & location)

Chinese; Longzhu, China

Jade kong (date & material)

3,300-2,200 BCE; jade

Jade kong (use & facts)

• cylinder & circle represent realms of life and death?

• jade is hard & translucent

• found at grave sights

Terracotta Army & Tomb of Emperor Shi Huangdi

Terracotta Army & Tomb of Emperor Shi Huangdi (culture & location)

Chinese; Lintong, China

Terracotta Army & Tomb of Emperor Shi Huangdi (date & material)

221-209 BCE; painted terracotta

Terracotta Army & Tomb of Emperor Shi Huangdi (use & facts)

• protect emperor in death

• discovered in 1973 by farmers

• 8000 full sized (& taller) warriors & horses

• 2000 years old

• individual heads represent diversity

• mass production of bodies by slaves or indentured servants

• put together in parts

• also chariots, weapons, bureaucrats, & entertainers

• original bright colors have faded over time

• necropolis began at his birth

• artists signed the bottom of each figure (killed if work flawed)

• Shi Huangdi (patron) buried workmen alive when they were finished

Funeral Banner of Lady Dai

Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (culture & location)

Han Dynasty; Mawangdui, China

Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (date & material)

180 BCE; painted silk

Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (use & facts)

• used in funeral procession & ceremony

• registers show different realms: heaven, Lady Dai & her attendants, body of Lady Dai with mourners, & underworld

• shows Lady Dai’s soul ascending to heaven

• Han Dynasty obsessed with immortality

• found in tomb with 1400+ objects of silk, wood, bamboo, pottery, clothing, & food

Longmen Caves

Longmen Caves (culture & location)

Tang Dynasty; banks of Yi River (China)

Longmen Caves (date & material)

493-1127 CE; limestone

Longmen Caves (use & facts)

• worship site for Buddhists

• Vairocana Buddha (celestial Buddha) on altar with bodhisattvas (achieved & enlightenment but stay on earth to help others), monks, & guardians

• built using private funds of patroness Empress Wei Zetain

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams (culture & creator)

Song Dynasty China; Fan Kuan

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams (date & material)

960-1279 CE; ink & color on silk

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams (use & facts)

• used as a piece to contemplate/meditate in Daoism

• seven-foot-tall hanging scroll

• “most famous of all Chinese landscape”

• classic Chinese perspective of 3 planes – near, middle (water & mist), & far

• Fan Kuan used overlapping forms of fore-, middle, & background to create the illusion of deep space

• theme is grandeur of natures

• can see mule train at base of towering cliff

• student of Li Ch’eng

• wonder of nature = Daoist

David Vases

David Vases (culture & location)

Chinese; Xingyuan, China

David Vases (date & material)

1351 CE; porcelain with cobalt blue underglaze

David Vases (use & facts)

• Made with incense burner to be used on Daoist altar in a Daoist temple

• inscription on one vase explains for whom it was destined

• porcelain is type of Chinese clay fired very hot to become white

• blue color traded for from Iran

• made in Mongol empire or Yuan dynasty

• earliest blue & white ware

• elephant head handles

• flowers & leaves, & traditional Chinese dragons

• named after Sir David, collector

Forbidden City

Forbidden City (culture & location)

Ming Dynasty; Beijing, China

Forbidden City (date & material)

15th century CE; wood, brick, & marble

Forbidden City (use & facts)

• palace

• Hall of Supreme Harmony – throne room/seat of power

• place of new years festival, winter solstice, & emperor’s bday

• yellow roofs with red painted beams on marble foundation

• animals on roof “prevent fire”

• 9000 rooms, largest Chinese architecture complex & 30 ft high walls

• forbidden = no one enters or leaves without permission

• built on North-South & East-West axis

• lots of dragon motifs = emperor

Chaiman Mao en Route to Anyuan

Chaiman Mao en Route to Anyuan (location & creator)

Chinese; Liu Chunhua

Chaiman Mao en Route to Anyuan (date & material)

1967 CE; oil on canvas

Chaiman Mao en Route to Anyuan (use & facts)

• propganda supporting Mao

• painted at beginning of Cultural Revolution

• during this time artists created portraits of Mao to help him regain hold after political struggles

• distract from disasters of 1950s – famine & deaths after Great Leap Forward (modernization of China)

• uses socialist realism to portray Mao as revolutionary leader ready to fight for common people

• Mao’s size (larger than mountains) reflects artist’s message that he is hugely important to Chinese Society

Portrait of Sin Sukju

Portrait of Sin Sukju (culture)

Korean

Portrait of Sin Sukju (date & material)

1417-1475 CE; ink on silk, hanging scroll

Portrait of Sin Sukju (use & facts)

• used in ancestor worship to show filial piety in rituals

• scholar & prime minister

• portrait shows his contributions to the state of Korea

• “meritorious subject”

Crown of the Silla Kingdom

Crown of the Silla Kingdom (culture & location)

Korean; Korea

Crown of the Silla Kingdom (date & material)

5th-6th century CE; gold & jade

Crown of the Silla Kingdom (use & facts)

• uesd in death & some royal ceremonies

• geometric trees & antlers from Siberia

• tree represents sacred tree of Gyeongju (capital), thought to be axis mundi

• no Chinese influence

• fragile

• attached to the “branches” are tiny gold discs& jade ornaments called gogok (ripe fruits symbolizing fertility & abundance)

Todai-ji Temple

Todai-ji Temple (culture & location)

Japanese; Nara, Japan

Todai-ji Temple (date & material)

743 CE; wood (cypress)

Todai-ji Temple (use & facts)

• Buddhist temple

• damaged by warfare with multiple restorations

• original parts are statue on lotus petal-throne & drapery

• also 8+ft Nio Guardian figures found here

• figures made using joint block technique with outer wood carved & painted (c. 1203 CE)

Night Attack at Sanjo Palace

Night Attack at Sanjo Palace (culture)

Japanese

Night Attack at Sanjo Palace (date & material)

1250-1300 CE; ink & color on paper

Night Attack at Sanjo Palace (use & facts)

• preserving history (from pov of victor)

• Japanese Kamakura period

• painted 100 years after event

• swift, active brushstrokes, elevated point of view, diagonals-for movement

• narrative read right to left

• military rule had interest in “code of warrior”

• type of painted called emaki (picture scroll)

Ryoan-ji Dry Garden

Ryoan-ji Dry Garden (culture & location)

Japanese; Kyoto, Japan

Ryoan-ji Dry Garden (date & material)

c. early 16th century CE; Rocks, water, moss, pruned trees, & bushes, gravel/sand

Ryoan-ji Dry Garden (use & facts)

• place of meditation

• Japanese rock garden, “dry landscape” = Zen garden

• miniature stylized landscape

• larger rock formations arranged in field of smooth pebbles raked into linear patters that facilitate meditation

• wavy patterns represent water, rocks are mountain ranges

• asymmetrical, not all seen at once

• bounded by low yellow wall

• focus for meditation

• made during Muromachi period (1392-1573)

White and Red Plum Blossoms

White and Red Plum Blossoms (culture & creator)

Japanese; Ogata Korin

White and Red Plum Blossoms (date & material)

1710-1716 CE; watercolor on paper, gold leaf background

White and Red Plum Blossoms (use & facts)

• created for wealthy patron

• painted in black ink & blotchy washes of mineral color on pair of folding screens

• both abstract & realistic

• gold leaf background negates place & time & gives ethereal glow

• stylized water, realistic plum trees

• Rinpa = combination of abstraction, naturalism, monumental presence, dynamism, & sensuality

Under the Great Wave

Under the Great Wave (culture & creator)

Japanese; Hokusai

Under the Great Wave (date & material)

1830 CE; ink & color on paper

Under the Great Wave (use & facts)

• part of series of prints hoping to increase tourism revenue in Japan

• if asked to attribute a work, if it depicts Mt. Fuji = Hokusai

• part of a series of woodblock prints called Thirty-six views of Mt. Fuji

• ukiyo-e prints (name for type of prints this work is  apart of)

• contrast heightens tension

• use of western perspective

• cobalt blue pigment = western influence