How to appreciate a traditional figure painting in China?

Portrait painting is the general name of painting with characters as the main body, and it is a major branch of Chinese painting, which was formed before landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting.

During the Warring States period, court murals and silk paintings depicting characters appeared, which experienced the evolution of stone reliefs and tomb murals in Han Dynasty and matured in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the Tang and Five Dynasties, figure painting entered a period of all-round prosperity, forming a rich and unique painting style.

Figure painting is generally divided into historical story painting (narrative figure painting), Taoist painting, lady painting, genre painting and figure painting.

First, historical story painting can be divided into single painting and continuous painting according to narrative techniques.

A single narrative painting often chooses the most critical or wonderful moment in the development of the story and depicts the characters most expressively. For example, the Han Dynasty stone relief "Jing Ke Stabbed the King of Qin" depicts the thrilling moment in the story of material selection.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, scroll painting became more and more mature. Soft silk is more conducive to depicting the inner activities of characters in detail.

The Tang Dynasty court painter Yan's "Walking Horse Map" is a unique masterpiece of narrative figure painting. It takes the historical event of Tibetan leader Songzan Gambo marrying Princess Wencheng as the theme, and depicts the scene of Emperor Taizong receiving Lu Dongzan, the Tibetan envoy who came to marry Princess Wencheng.

The space-time expression of Chinese painting is free, and the painter can express multiple story plots on the same screen and describe the whole process of an event development. This is a serial story painting.

From the Dunhuang murals in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, we can see the wonderful work of this kind of "comic book". For example, the Dunhuang fresco "Prince Sazana-Give His Life to Feed the Tiger" in the Northern Wei Dynasty is an early narrative painting in the form of comic books.

The whole picture is full of ups and downs and changes in rhythm. Each section is separated by furniture and screens, which is naturally unique. ?