How did the art of lacquer painting evolve and develop during the Western Zhou period?

Western Zhou period, lacquer decorative art than the previous generation has improved greatly. The organic combination of colored painting and inlaid clam bubbles or copper ornaments became the most characteristic expression of lacquer decorative patterns in this period.

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were important stages in the development of lacquer art in China. Lacquer materials and lacquer production process progress, so that the exquisite shape and the beauty of the decorations are far better than the Western Zhou period. Lacquerware decorations are exquisite and vivid, colorful, mainly black ground-based, with red painted, simple and gorgeous, reached an unprecedented level, the Warring States period, the excellent quality of lacquerware more and more people are aware of the mastery of: it is lightweight, sturdy, acid-resistant, heat-resistant, corrosion-resistant, the shape of the flexible changes in accordance with the use of the decorative paintings can be based on the aesthetic needs of the constant renovation.

The decorative patterns of the Warring States lacquer ware obviously evolved from the patterns of bronze ware and jade ware of the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty, such as Yunlei, kui, phoenix, coiled chi dragons and coiled vipers, etc. In particular, the decorative patterns of the lacquer ware of the Warring States period are very similar to those of the bronze ware of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

In particular, natural weather patterns such as cloud and thunder patterns occupy a prominent position in the decorative patterns of Warring States lacquer ware. Commonly used purely cloud pattern or transformed into a cloud-shaped structure of the dragon, phoenix pattern composed of images. These decorations haunting and scrolling, interlinked, flying and moving, giving people a sense of atmospheric circling like the depth and vitality of the active sense of the function, to a very high artistic realm.

The lacquer paintings of the Warring States period are based on the colors of vermilion and black, inheriting the tradition of "Yu made sacrificial vessels, dyeing them with ink and painting them with vermilion". In addition to the two colors of vermilion and ink, more than 10 colors such as yellow, blue, green, white, brown, gold and silver were also used.

In the Warring States lacquer trousseau "Hunting Picture", there are running deer, birds competing for food, and hunters bending their bows and shooting arrows. The picture is vivid and powerful, quite real. There are also trees on the picture, the brushwork is graceful and colorful, interesting. This not only shows that the fine painting skills, and eulogize the nature of Laozhuang thought also occupies a place, which later laid the groundwork for the creation of landscape painting.