The Artistic Features of China's Ancient Portraits

If you have a specific description object, it is impossible to generate ideas. As far as the specific description form is concerned, the differences in description object, expression form and creation technique, as well as the individual differences in painter's pen and ink skills and aesthetic taste, lead to the complex personality characteristics of portrait painting. If some are loyal to the objective, some emphasize the subject; Some pay attention to appearance, while others pay attention to charm; Some of them are full of emotions, while others are extremely lacking in personality. This personality in * * * has formed many types of portraits. (1) The ancient portraits of China can be roughly divided into seven types: historical portraits, imperial portraits, bureaucratic gentry portraits, literati portraits, common people portraits, female portraits and painters' self-portraits, among which the imperial portrait is an important branch and component of court paintings. The portrait of the emperor is a painting depicting the imperial status of the supreme ruler in feudal society, which has the special significance and function of imperial art. On the one hand, it reflects many aspects of the emperor's life, records some important political activities of the emperor and reflects his outstanding political achievements. It is a mirror of history, with different degrees of historical significance. On the other hand, because of its imperial nature, it always tries to carry out the will, requirements and hobbies of the rulers, so it has a strong utilitarian color, which is also different from the portraits of ordinary literati and ordinary subjects. Don't aim at the similarity of appearance, but pay more attention to vividness.

For the understanding and expression of the beauty of characters, the focus is on the beauty of "knowing the elegance of God". Its most precious tradition is called vivid description or portrait, description of mind and interest, that is, through the modeling description that can express the inner essence of characters, it can truly show the personalities, personalities and inner worlds of different characters, reveal their personalities, reflect their social attributes, and give or try new aesthetic judgments. For this reason, China's figure painting advocates "the shape of a monarch" using the spirit, firmly grasping the important details such as eyes, gestures and posture that are beneficial to vividness, emphasizing priorities, detailing, writing biochemistry, detailing facial gestures that convey feelings but slightly clothing, detailing character activities and their reactions but slightly describing the environment, or only writing characters without drawing the background, or simply showing props that help point out the environment, or heads and heads. In order to highlight the author's unique feelings, some figure paintings also use exaggerated deformation techniques. In the relationship between the characters' activities and the environmental scenery, lyric works often set off the characters' modality by creating an artistic atmosphere. Narrative works are especially good at dividing space from environmental scenery or indoor furnishings in the form of banners or long scrolls, and narrating events in the process of time one by one by using the method of repeated appearance of main characters, which breaks through the limitation of unifying time and space. The pen and ink skills and techniques used in figure painting, on the one hand, obey the structural texture, quantity and expression of the image, on the other hand, convey the author's feelings, and also reflect the author's personal style.