Historical development of figure painting

The silk paintings of "Dragon and Phoenix with Pictures" and "Dragon with Pictures" unearthed from Chu Tomb in the Warring States Period are the earliest known single figure paintings. By the Han Dynasty, the development of figure painting was basically mature. In the creation of figure painting, there are not only accurate portraits, but also vivid, exaggerated and deformed works. Many portraits have distinct freehand brushwork. Indeed, the liberation of thought, the introduction of Buddhism, the popularity of metaphysics and the establishment of professional painters in the Wei and Jin Dynasties contributed to the refinement of figure painting, especially the prosperity of religious painting. The first masters of figure painting, represented by Gu Kaizhi, and the first theories of figure painting, represented by Farzam Kama Labadi and On Painting in Wei, Jin and Liu Sheng, laid an important tradition of figure painting in China. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozi pushed the figure painting of religious painting to a new situation that was more vivid. The Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty were the period of in-depth development of China's figure painting. With the establishment of the Palace Painting Academy, meticulous figure painting has become more exquisite. With the rise of literati painting, folk manuscripts have been improved into a painting style, which is called line drawing by Li. With the development of urban and rural economy in Song Dynasty, the dispute between Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, realistic social genre paintings and historical story paintings also flourished. Zhang Zeduan's masterpiece The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival came into being in this period. Influenced by Zen in the Southern Song Dynasty, Kai Liang's splash-ink stick figure painting marked the rise of freehand figure painting, and China's figure painting began to develop in another direction. Ladies' paintings and Gao Shi's paintings appear in large numbers. Later, Chen Hongshou in the late Ming Dynasty and Ren Yi in the late Qing Dynasty created many excellent figure paintings. China's modern figure painting has made unprecedented contributions to the in-depth study of tradition, the extensive absorption of foreign techniques and the presentation of life in the new era.