What's the name of the ladies' series?

It should be named according to the overall artistic conception, overall thought and the scene described in the picture.

The Picture of a Lady, also known as the Picture of a Lady, is a painting with the life of upper-middle class women in China feudal society as its theme. Typical decorative patterns of porcelain, with ladies as the theme. It was first seen in Changsha kiln porcelain in Tang Dynasty. The rarity of ladies' paintings in Song and Yuan Dynasties was closely related to the prevalence of flower-and-bird paintings at that time.

The formation and development of female images;

The development stage of lady painting

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is the early development stage of ladies painting. The women depicted are mainly ancient virtuous women and fairies in myths and legends, and the prototype of such images generally comes from literary works such as poems, songs and folklores. When artists express these idealized women who are far away from real life, they are most concerned about how to show their inner spiritual temperament through the performance of women's external bodies. From the earliest extant scroll paintings of ladies' paintings, and according to the description of the goddess Luoshui in Gu Kaizhi's Poem "The Goddess of Luoshen" written by Cao Zhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (Song manuscript), we can see that the typical beauty in Wei and Jin Dynasties is slim and has a lofty ancient charm.

Luo Shen's face is oval, with delicate facial features, slim and graceful figure, light and slender. She didn't show ecstatic expression because she met Cao Zhi by the Luoshui River, nor did she show sadness and indignation because she left Cao Zhi. She finally faced the development of the situation with an indifferent and peaceful expression, thus successfully showing the extraordinary beauty of Luo Shen, which is consistent with the characteristics of people advocating metaphysics, paying attention to people's inner spiritual temperament and pursuing detachment in Wei and Jin Dynasties.

The heyday of lady painting

As the most glorious era of feudal society, the Tang Dynasty was also the prosperous stage of ladies' painting. Painters pay attention to the rich and colorful real society with the optimism of actively entering the WTO, and are especially keen to show the leisurely lifestyle and monotonous and leisurely life mood of aristocratic women. Natalie and Zhou Fang are famous female painters in this period. Zhou Fang's "Painting of Lady Wearing Flowers" and "Painting of Lady Waving a Fan" represent the outstanding achievements of the court ladies' painting in Tang Dynasty in both form and spirit. Painters pay attention to realism and truth-seeking in modeling. The woman's face is round and full, her figure is plump and solid, and her temperament is elegant and noble, which shows the luxury beauty of royal women in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

This kind of beauty has a strong sense of the times, caters to the aesthetic taste of the big bureaucrats and nobles in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, attracts much attention and becomes the main artistic feature of the ladies' paintings in the Tang Dynasty. The Five Dynasties after the Tang Dynasty was an era of frequent regime changes, and painters inherited the tradition of the Tang Dynasty and made some changes in the creation of ladies' paintings. For example, compared with the ladies of the Tang Dynasty, the most remarkable change of the female geisha described in the ancient "Han Xizai's Night Banquet" is that the geisha's plump skin is healthier and more beautiful because of the lack of the lazy posture of the ladies of the Tang Dynasty. The slender figure of fairies in Ruan Gao's "Fairy Picture of Yuen Long" shows the plump and obese modeling scheme of the ladies in the Tang Dynasty. Even the fairies painted in the Tang Dynasty began to pay attention to the curvy beauty and charming posture of female characters.

reform

Song Dynasty is an era of relatively stable political power, developed economy and prosperous culture. In the creation of ladies' paintings, they inherited the prosperity of the Tang and Five Dynasties and made some innovations, especially in the subject matter, which expanded the scope of expression to an unprecedented extent.

In addition to the aristocratic women in the court and the women in myths and legends are still depicted, the poor women at the bottom of life have also begun to attract the attention of painters, such as the women in Wang's Spinning Picture. Compared with the ladies written by Gu Kaizhi in Jin Dynasty and Zhou Fang in Tang Dynasty, they have no beautiful appearance, attractive figure, gorgeous costumes and noble status, but are just the most ordinary rural women in life. The old woman with patched clothes and trousers looks haggard and slow, and the hard life makes her look full of vicissitudes. The author expresses them in a realistic artistic way without beautification, aiming at praising their attitude towards life and unpretentious personality beauty, and at the same time expressing sympathy for their poor life. The picture reflects the artistic characteristics of the ladies' paintings in the Song Dynasty, and the figures are rigorous in modeling, accurate in proportion and vivid and natural in posture.

Ladies' paintings in the Yuan Dynasty are declining.

During the reign of Mongolian aristocrats in Yuan Dynasty, the special social situation and ethnic contradictions made painters take refuge in Shan Ye and devote themselves to landscape painting to express their seclusion feelings, which led to the decline of ladies painting in Yuan Dynasty. In the choice of themes, painters did not inherit the tradition of many women who actively expressed various classes, identities and situations in the Song Dynasty, but stayed away from real life, looking for themes in historical stories and literary works, and inherited the legacy of the characters in the prosperous Tang Dynasty who were "open-minded, aloof, sweet, gentle and gentle", such as the painting of Du Qiu Tu and the painting of Mrs. Fan Tu. Full-bodied and fat with straight long skirt hides the curvy beauty of women's waist.

With some kind of aestheticism

The Ming Dynasty was a period of political stability in feudal society, and the painting of ladies gained great development with the active participation of literati and painters. In terms of subject matter, in addition to portraits, all kinds of women in dramas, novels and legendary stories have become the images of ladies that painters are most willing to create. Character modeling gradually tends to freehand brushwork with certain aesthetic color from figurative realism in Song Dynasty. A lady is graceful, dignified and beautiful, and her manners reveal the elegant and quiet beauty of women. In particular, they are happy among pavilions and wearing tight bright clothes, which enhances their slender and elegant posture.

As a mature stage of lady painting in Ming Dynasty, not only many outstanding lady painters and their works appeared, but also great achievements were made in expression techniques. For example, Wei Wu's "Wuling Spring Map" represents the highest level of sketching ladies in the early Ming Dynasty.

"Wulingchun" is drawn with thin and even ink lines, and the picture is elegant and smooth, which more appropriately shows the delicate and quiet spirit of the hostess. Wen Zhiming's "Xiang Jun Xiang Fu Tu" represents the highest realm of pale lady painting. The light color of the characters with scarlet white powder as the main tone shows the gentle and beautiful beauty of the goddess. Chou Ying's ladies' paintings have the comment that "Zhou Fang will rise again, but it won't pass". His "Little Makeup Picture of Maid-in-waiting" fully shows his profound skill in beauty meticulous painting. Although Yang Guifei and the maid-in-waiting in the picture are ladies in the Tang Dynasty, they are actually ideal beauty images in the minds of literati in the Ming Dynasty. Their neck ornaments, shoulders cutting and stooping are completely different from those of ladies-in-waiting in Zhou Fang. Their eyebrows are curved, their cheeks are plump, their necks are short and their chests are wide.

Rise to the highest position

As the last dynasty of feudal society, the Qing Dynasty witnessed the development of lady painting, which was promoted to the highest position above landscapes and flowers and birds. As Gao Chongrui said in "Matsushita Zhai Qing Ji" in the Qing Dynasty, "the world is famous for its mountains and rivers, exotic flowers and birds, and beauty can be both. Although Jing, Guan Splash Ink, Cui and Ai have spent a lot of money, they are not like a collection of ladies and gentlemen. "

During this period, lady painting became more and more divorced from life and became a conceptual and stylized theme. The women in the painting, whether virtuous women, ladies and fairies, or Mulan and Liang Hongyu who joined the army to practice martial arts, all have the figure of trimming their necks, shoulders and waists, the appearance of long faces, details and lips, the charm of "showing a sad face in the wind" and the melancholy of a small family.

During this period, both court painters Jiao Bingzhen and Lengmei, as well as literati painters Gaiqi and Fei, all pursued the aesthetic pursuit of expressing the feminine manners of "leaning against the wind and being weak". This stylized "morbid beauty" was not changed until the appearance of Shanghai painter Ren Yi and others. The painter's enthusiasm for the creation of female images does not show respect for their personality, and women are only the artistic objects to be displayed. Therefore, the improvement of the status of women's painting in the Qing Dynasty reflects the decline of women's social image. Although the style of ladies' painting in Qing Dynasty lost the healthy style of ladies' painting in Tang and Song Dynasties, it absorbed some positive factors of literati painting in expression techniques, emphasized graceful posture, advocated elegant and elegant style, and incorporated the advantages of western painting into the works, which opened the way for the later innovation of figure painting techniques.

Famous works:

Zanhua women's dress map

Zhou Fang, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, painted a picture of a beautiful woman wearing a hairpin. This painting depicts the leisure life of ladies. They use simple pens. Elegant, gorgeous and luxurious, they play in the courtyard, take a leisurely action, pick flowers, shoot butterflies, beat dogs, watch cranes, walk slowly, sit around and do nothing, and the waitresses follow the fans. Its coloring skills, distinct layers, dizzy face and clothes decoration are all extremely ingenious. The lightness and softness of the veil and the moist luster of the skin are vividly painted, which shows the author's high artistic skills and generalization ability.

Zhou Fang, named Zhong Lang and Xuan Jing, is from Chang 'an. He was active in the era of Li Yude and Li (AD 763 1804). He comes from a noble family, and his brother Zhou Hao is an outstanding general. Zhou Fang lived a noble life.

Zhou Fang's paintings are very serious. It is said that he has been thinking all the time when he was creating, "As for feeling dreams, show the current musical instruments and spread them to spiritual craftsmen". -I saw the image I sought in my dream.

The most famous Buddhist image created by Zhou Fang is "Shuiyue Guanyin", which is recorded. There are paintings by Zhou Fang in the southeast courtyard of Shengguang Temple Tower in Guangde Square in Chang 'an, picture frames in Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, cave murals in Wanxi Wanfo Gorge, and examples of Shuiyue Guanyin paintings in Tang Dynasty. Zhou Fang's Buddhist painting has long been a popular standard, known as "Zhou style".

The characteristics of Zhou Fang's works, as recorded at that time, are "simple clothes" and "soft colors", and the female images depicted are "rich as a body". These characteristics can be seen in Zhou Fang's existing works, such as "The Picture of Ladies in Wan Fan" and "The Picture of Ladies in Zanhua".

Tune the piano and sip the tea.

"Tune the piano and sip tea" and "Mrs. Fan Fan" used to be regarded as Zhou Fang's works. The era and style of his works are close to that of Zhou Fang. "Tune the piano and sip tea" shows two women quietly waiting for another woman to fiddle with the strings and prepare to play. In the picture, the back of the trance sipping tea and the meticulous movements of fiddling with the strings are all described accurately and expressively.

This painting instantly depicts the carefree mood of ancient aristocratic women in the monotonous life of doing nothing through gestures. The picture of ten thousand ladies is also successful in this respect. At the beginning of the book, a lady sits lazily, and her thoughtful expression also reveals the loneliness of their lives. There are thirteen people in the 10,000-fan Lady Map, which shows the daily life of the court.

The picture of a lady is based on the life of court women, and the luxuriously decorated concubines stroll in the garden. The characters are plump, leisurely and serene, and the identity and life characteristics of the concubines are fully displayed. The environment is only implied by two cranes and puppies, not directly described. The main success of this painting lies in its depiction of image and dynamics.

The most popular theme in these ladies' paintings is loneliness, idleness and boredom in the narrow and poor life of ancient aristocratic women. Described their gorgeous appearance, but also revealed their emotional life through their demeanor, to a certain extent, reflecting the feudal society's bondage to women.

Many of Zhou Fang's works have been lost, but the general contents can be seen from the titles, such as: various pictures of famous women, such as playing spring outing, making tea, leaning on the fence, playing flute, crane dance, Zhao Lan, playing flute and Go.

Zhou Fang's works were very popular with Koreans in the Tang Dynasty. Today, we can still see that the ancient Japanese Zhou Fang-style paintings of ladies have been preserved. Full-bodied female images were widely popular in the Tang Dynasty, especially in the mid-Tang Dynasty and beyond. It was also found in the ancient tomb in Turpan, Xinjiang. There were also many pottery figurines in the Tang Dynasty.

Zhou Fang's disciples are Cheng, Wang Yi and Zhao Boxuan. Among them, Cheng Xiu followed Zhou Fang for twenty years and had the deepest relationship with Zhou Fang, which was also the most valued at that time.

The themes of Zhou Fang's works include those involved in the works of Natalie and other female painters at that time. In addition to the general themes of aristocratic women's lives, it is particularly noteworthy that there are also works that specifically describe the activities in the Tang Dynasty, such as Enjoy the Cool in the Ming Dynasty, Fighting Chickens and Shooting Birds in the Ming Dynasty, Playing Wutong in the Ming Dynasty, Night Tour in the Ming Dynasty, Bathing in Yang Fei, Teaching Parrots in Taizhen, and Picture of Guo's Wife. These works directly show the luxurious and romantic life of the emperor and his life without causing discrimination, and are repeated by many painters. This also explains the social and psychological background of the vigorous development of lady painting at that time.

Among the above-mentioned examples of ladies' paintings in the Tang Dynasty, "Tiaoqin Sip Tea", "The Picture of Lady You Chun of the State of Guo" and "The Picture of Tao Ren" all have obvious plots, and the action description has also achieved great success. At that time, ladies painters described the activities of ladies, such as swimming in the spring, leaning against the railing, playing the flute and taking pictures, with the aim of expressing the emotional state of people engaged in these activities, rather than simply expressing them. Today, the ladies' paintings in the Tang Dynasty (including newly unearthed murals and ladies' paintings) all reflect the characteristics of the times and aesthetic ideas, and are also of great significance.

Hanyantu

Han Xizai's Night Banquet was written by Li Yu, the late emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who visited Han Xizai's mansion at night (according to the record of Xuanhe Huapu). Han Xizai, the protagonist in the painting, came from a noble family in the north and took refuge in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Li Houzhu wanted to appoint him as prime minister, but Han Xizai saw that the country was in trouble and refused to take the post, so he indulged himself all day and drank wine with his guests for a long time. Most of the other characters in the painting are real people, such as Lang Kui, the top scholar, and Deming, a monk, who are frequent visitors to North Korea. In the picture scroll, although Han Xizai is a degenerate, he is always frowning, and it is hard to hide his worries. The console table is relatively low, which is a transitional period from sitting on the floor to sitting on the feet. Pipa, flute and drum, beds with beautiful piers and indoor furnishings all reflect the characteristics of the times. Realistic themes require painters to observe life deeply, capture the details of life, remember it with their eyes, appreciate it carefully, and then reproduce it artistically, raising the natural form to an artistic form.

Gu, a native of Jiangnan, was a painter of Southern Tang Painting Academy in the Five Dynasties. His "Han Xizai's Night Banquet" is rigorous and delicate in composition, elegant and vivid in character modeling, rich and smooth in lines and bright and elegant in colors, which fully embodies the style and characteristics of figure painting in the Five Dynasties in terms of techniques and styles.

Han Xizai's Night Banquet is a masterpiece in China's painting history, which depicts the scene of a Han Xizai family feasting and having fun in the Southern Tang Dynasty in the form of a long scroll. In order to avoid the suspicion of Li Yu, the ruler of the late Southern Tang Dynasty, Han Xizai took lewdness as his hiding place. Every time he holds a big banquet, he likes to swim with the guests. This painting depicts the whole process of the banquet hosted by the Han government, which can be divided into five parts according to the sequence of events.

The first part depicts people listening to the pipa. At this time, the banquet began, and the wine was mixed. Guests sit or stand, men and women are not right. A woman is sitting playing the pipa, and most people's eyes are on her. At this time, Han Xizai was sitting on the couch, tall and bearded, with eyes hanging down and thoughtful. The second part describes the dance scenes between banquets. Wu Wangshan, a small and exquisite prostitute, is dancing with the festival, and Han Xizai, who is standing in front of the Jie drum, rolls up his sleeves and grabs the drumstick, is announcing the rhythm with the drum. At this time, his interest gradually increased. The third part depicts Han Xizai retreating into the inner room to have a rest after music and dancing. A maid-in-waiting was washing his hands and face with a basin of water, and the other maids were waiting beside him. The fourth part describes Han Xizai's listening to Xiao Di's ensemble. Han Xizai was topless, sitting in a chair, holding a fan and talking to the ladies-in-waiting. In front of him, there are five women playing with Little Tiki under the clappers. The fifth part describes the situation of Han Xizai's enthusiastic stay. Han Xizai, with a drumstick in his hand, gestured with the other hand, and asked the guests to stay. The banquet was reopened and would last until dawn. The whole volume is carefully conceived, with five pictures in one breath, and the rhythm is adjusted through the density of characters and the quietness of the scene, so that the event process is clear at a glance and the development trend is full of twists and turns. There is no redundant background in volume, but the screen and bed are skillfully used to switch time and space, complete the transformation between different scenes, and integrate time and space without trace.

The figures in the painting are centered on Han Xizai. The author describes his expressions and activities in different stages since the banquet, and carefully grasps the context of his emotional changes. In the depiction of more than 40 characters in the whole picture, the author tries to convey the spirit in form, reflect their inner situation through the dynamic performance of characters, create a variety of group image combinations, and reveal vivid and harmonious formal beauty. Painters also make good use of details to convey their feelings, such as listening to the pipa with a maid probe to hint at the high performance skills, lighting up festivals with fruit on a plate, and indicating the time with candlelight on a watch case, all of which are worthy of careful experience. This long scroll has accurate and smooth lines, exquisite workmanship and expressive force. Elegant color, layered and unique.

Han Xizai (902-970) was born in Beihai (now Weifang, Shandong). At the end of the Tang Dynasty, he entered imperial academy and fled to the south to avoid chaos. He used to be assistant minister of Zhongshu in Southern Tang Dynasty and bachelor of Zheng Guangtang. Because there were fewer wars in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, the natural and production conditions were superior, and the bureaucratic literati lived a luxurious life, and most of them had geisha (or Jia Ji and Ji Le). According to historical records, there are more than 40 geisha in Han Xizai's family. Han Xizai has political talent and artistic attainments. He knows music, can sing and dance, and is good at poetry, painting and calligraphy. However, seeing the decline of the Southern Tang Dynasty, he was saddened by the struggle for power and profit of the aristocratic bureaucrats, unwilling to be prime minister, and pinned his difficulties on singing and dancing. Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, heard that Han Xizai's life was "barren", that is, she sent Gu of the Academy of Fine Arts to sneak into the Han House late at night to peek at the scene of her debauchery, study hard and draw this banquet picture after she came back.

The painter memorized it with his eyes and drew this colorful, numerous figures and grand scene "The Night Banquet". Because of Gu's meticulous observation, he never let go of any detail, portraying Han Xizai, who lives in the official residence, as a dog and horse, feasting to the extreme, and the characters' voices and smiles are vivid and lifelike. Therefore, in this masterpiece, more than 40 characters with different expressions, although repeated, always maintain a unified face, but their personalities are outstanding and their expressions are changeable. The Night Banquet vividly reflects the arrogance and extravagance of the ruling class at that time. The whole volume of "The Night Banquet" is in the form of a hand scroll, which depicts the activities of the whole night banquet in five scenes: pipa solo, six solo dances, banquet break, wind ensemble and the end of the night banquet. Between scenes, the painter skillfully used screens, boxes, orchestral instruments, beds and other objects. So that they are both connected and separated from each other; It is both an independent painting and a painting. In fact, it is not only a picture depicting Han Xizai's private life, but more importantly, it reflects the characteristics of that particular era. The painter regarded Han Xizai, a brilliant writer, as an influential scholar-bureaucrat and Taoist Buddha, and showed Li Houzhu's mental outlook that he intended to rely on. Obviously, the reason why Han Xizai was able to indulge in debauchery was also inseparable from the political situation in which the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Li Dynasty were about to collapse.