Significance and characteristics of traditional painting and calligraphy

New Year pictures originated in Han Dynasty, developed in Tang and Song Dynasties and prevailed in Ming and Qing Dynasties. New Year pictures are characterized by a wide range of themes and types. Broadly speaking, all paintings created by folk artists and carved and managed by workshops, which are characterized by describing and reflecting folk secular life, can be classified as New Year pictures.

First, the origin of New Year pictures

New Year pictures originated in Han Dynasty, developed in Tang and Song Dynasties and prevailed in Ming and Qing Dynasties. China's early New Year pictures are closely related to two themes: exorcism and praying for good luck. In the process of praying for a bumper harvest, worshipping ancestors, exorcising evil spirits and other holiday customs, the corresponding New Year decorative arts gradually appeared.

Second, the characteristics of New Year pictures

(a) broad themes

The theme of New Year pictures is all-encompassing, with more than 2,000 kinds, which can be called an encyclopedia of folk life. It can be roughly divided into four aspects: gods and mascots, secular life, dolls and beauties, stories and legends.

(2) There are many kinds.

In terms of types, New Year pictures can be divided into six categories: door gods, auspicious celebrations, customs, dramas, symbols and miscellaneous pictures.

Third, the significance of New Year pictures.

Broadly speaking, all paintings created by folk artists and carved and managed by workshops, which are characterized by describing and reflecting folk secular life, can be classified as New Year pictures. New Year pictures are auspicious images of ancient China. In the long years, with the evolution of festival customs, the unique symbolic decorative art of China folk has been formed.

As an independent kind of painting, New Year pictures can continue to exist and develop because of its wide audience, great social demand, rich content and diverse forms, which is incomparable to any other kind of painting.

The expressions of New Year pictures and modelling technique have distinct national characteristics and aesthetic value. The formation of its artistic characteristics is based on social ethics, cultural upbringing and folk life, which truly reflects the social forms, political events and life interests in various historical periods.

The art of New Year pictures was initiated by China, and it also reflected the history, life, beliefs and customs of China society. New Year pictures are also a dictionary of regional culture, from which we can find the distinctive cultural personality of each region. These personality factors can be recognized at a glance not only in the subject matter, but also in the genre, color, lines and different flavors of the origin of each New Year picture. You can know all the people in China from the New Year pictures.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia Entry-New Year Pictures