What is Silk Painting?
Emperor Huizong of Song Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, ca.
How did Chinese artisans traditionally make silk paintings?
Copy of a section of “Emperor Minghuang’s Journey to Sichuan,” late Ming Dynasty (Photo:Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA 3.0)
Historically, practitioners would use a stone to smooth out the surface of the silk.
Crafted with a brush and ink, calligraphy highlights the understated beauty of handwritten characters through meticulously rendered strokes.
These pieces were both discovered in tombs in Changsha and were created between 475 and 221 BCE.
Emperor Huizong of Song “Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk,” ca. 1100-1133(Photo:Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain)
The pieces served the same function: toaid the deadas they cross into the afterlife.
Soon, however, they moved beyond simple black-ink designs and started painting compositions in theGongbistyle.
The gutta acts as a barrier, giving form to the painting and preventing the paint from bleeding.
“Pink and White Lotus,” 14th century (Photo:Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain)
Once the gutta is dry, paint can be applied.
A part of a Taoist manuscript, 2nd century BCE (Photo:Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain)
Left: “Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon”(Photo:Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain); Right: “Silk painting with a lady, phoenix and dragon”(Photo:Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain)
Qian Xuan, “Early Autumn,” 13th century (Photo:Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain)
