Song Dynasty attaches great importance to the Confucian spirit of "Gewu", advocating that people seriously and deeply analyze everything and find the inner principles of these things. This trend of thought coincides with the style of "Huang family's wealth" in the paintings of flowers and birds in the court of the Five Dynasties. At the same time, Song Huizong's admiration for realistic flowers and birds and the establishment of court "paintings" also provided more theoretical support for the creation of courtyard flower and bird paintings. Under the combined effect of these conditions, the Song Dynasty's courtyard flower and bird paintings reached a new height in terms of technique, subject matter and artistic conception, and on the basis of retaining the traditions of "both form and spirit" and "line modeling", they were also keen to explore and dare to innovate.
Cui Bai: "Broken branches and willows".Cui Bai was an important figure in promoting the innovation of flower and bird painting in the Northern Song Dynasty. As a court painter, he inherited the tradition of five dynasties of courtyard flowers and birds who were good at sketching, but he was keen to integrate Xu Xi's "wildness" into the courtyard, and his paintings of geese, cicadas, and finches were called the three uniques.
His most outstanding achievement in painting flowers and birds is to break the limitations of the themes and styles of flowers and birds in the previous court, and to paint the dead trees, lotus lotuses, and wild finches in the wilderness, so that the flowers and birds in the courtyard extend from the exotic flowers and plants, rare birds and beasts in the court to the natural appearance of the natural world, which is very different from the "wealth" advocated by the flowers and birds of the five generations, and is a major innovation in the flower and bird painting of the courtyard.
Cui Bai is especially good at depicting "stumps and willows" in autumn and winter. In "Double Happiness", he depicts a scene of the wilderness in the bleak autumn breeze. In the picture, the dead branches are depressed, the leaves are scattered, the dead grass is swaying in the cold wind, a magpie is hovering overhead, and the other is leaning over the branches and looking at the hare under the tree. Magpies, hares, dead grass, and old trees are all painted in ochre, in harmony with the cold, heavy theme of late autumn, and the large area of heavy ink staining on the magpie's body forms a strong contrast with the white of the abdomen, enhancing the layering and depth of the picture. When depicting animal skins and furs, he combines dots and dyes, and the landscape part is integrated with a meticulous brushwork, and the brushwork is sophisticated and vigorous, forming a cold and solemn yet vivid overall effect. Although there is no language between the animals, the viewer can appreciate the communication of the small life in the world from the simple interaction of two birds and one rabbit. The panic of the two magpies and the stop of the rabbit in the painting reveal the artist's meticulous observation of nature, and the images are lively and uncarved, which can be described as a blend of scenes and endless evocativeness.
From the "encountering the wall" of the five dynasties of "wild and easy" in the court, to the "broken branches and willows" created by the emperor of the art academy, Cui Bai injected vitality into the court flower and bird painting with the lively and natural rural interest, and also showed the innovation and inclusiveness of the flowers and birds in the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Chang: "Communicate with flowers".Zhao Chang was not born in the court painting academy, but most of his works belonged to the courtyard of court flowers and birds, and were admired by many later court painters. He imitated Xu Chongsi's "boneless method", often observing the growth of flowers in the early morning, while mixing colors and depicting, and the flowers he painted were vivid and full of charm. Zhao Chang is famous for painting "folded branch flowers", with bright colors and bright colors, and can "communicate with flowers". This technique of "not making the whole plant" also provided more forms for the composition of the flower and bird paintings in the Northern Song Dynasty. According to records, "Zhao Chang folds the branches and works in particular, the flowers contain smoke and rain, the smiling face faces the wind, the scenery is endowed with the shape and the truth, the authenticity is not distinguished, the color is as new, and the year is far away", which shows that Zhao Chang's flower and bird paintings are good at blending, vivid and delicate characteristics.
His work "Sketch of a Butterfly" is a sketch depicting the autumn wilderness. The composition of the work is soothing, and the depicted objects are mostly concentrated below. Whether it is flowers, leaves or fluttering butterflies, they are all arranged by the painter. The dancing butterflies in the clear sky and the grasshoppers looking upwards make this autumn scene pure and peaceful, fresh and moving. The painter's pen is strong, the colors are beautiful and elegant, and the flower lines are concise and changeable. Double-hooked, smudged nearby flowers are well layered. The wings of the butterfly also appear unique under the painter's fine outline, and even the subtle lines are clearly visible. Such realistic skills make Zhao Chang often called "sketching Zhao Chang".
Zhao Ji: "Form and spirit at the same time".Zhao Ji was the eighth emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty. Regardless of his achievements as a ruler, as an artist, his contribution to the flowers and birds of the Song Dynasty is very prominent. Deng Chun said in "Painting Succession" that "the heavens are sacred, and the art is extremely godly", and Tang Yuan commented that "the emperors of the past dynasties can paint, and Huizong can be described as dedicated", all of which show his high artistic attainments.
Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was in charge of the Xuanhe Painting Academy, promoted the "painting movement", and personally instructed many court painters to paint. His paintings of flowers and birds advocate "the simultaneous development of form and spirit", the style of painting is beautiful, because of the subtle observation of flowers and birds, the depicted objects are delicate and realistic, and the law is rigorous, inheriting the traditional painting theory of "corresponding object pictogram", known as "Xuanhe style". According to the record of "Painting Succession": "There are few people who can paint in the moon season, and the four seasons, morning and dusk, flowers, stamens, and leaves are all different. This work is in the middle of the spring, there is no difference, so it is rewarded. When instructing court painters to paint peacocks, Song Huizong also pointed out that "when a peacock rises, it must first raise its left", which fully reflects his creative attitude of being diligent in sketching and being good at grasping details.
On the other hand, Song Huizong advocated the integration of literati elements into the academy system. He often inscribes poems and composes poems on calligraphy and painting, combining the abstract artistic conception of poetry and calligraphy with the beauty of the shape of flowers and birds in the courtyard, which enhances the artistic value of his works. His work "Hibiscus Brocade Chicken" is composed of flowers and butterflies and brocade chickens. In the painting, the plump and gorgeous golden pheasant looks back at the fluttering butterflies, showing an instantaneous movement that is eager to try. In the middle, a hibiscus hangs slightly due to the weight of the golden pheasant, subtly dividing the view. And in the upper right corner of the painting, there is also the painter's thin gold inscription, "Autumn strength resists frost, Eguan brocade feather chicken." It is known that all the five virtues are better than the puff, and the ease is better than the puff", which can be described as poetic and picturesque.
Li Di: "The Wind of Shangyi".Li Di is a representative of the flower and bird painters of the Southern Song Dynasty. As a court painter, Li Di was influenced by the flower and bird paintings of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, pursued the value of color and decoration, and created many brightly colored works represented by "Red and White Hibiscus". At the same time, with the gradual frequent contacts between the academy painters and the literati doctors, the "Shangyi" spirit of literati flower and bird painting was also integrated into Li Di's own works.
In order not to be bound by the form of flowers and birds in the courtyard of the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Di, who often painted small landscapes, creatively combined some elements of landscape painting with the flowers and birds of the courtyard, so that the literati atmosphere and poetic conception of the flowers and birds in the courtyard were further enhanced. His work "Maple Eagle and Pheasant" has a unique composition, in which an ancient maple tree rises from the mountain, and the fierce goshawk stares down at the fleeing pheasant, and the atmosphere is tense and intense. It is worth noting that the trunks of the trees in the painting are coarsely and finely dyed, and the mountains and rocks are chopped with axes and dyed with heavy ink, which is obviously different from the fine and bright style of the previous paintings of flowers and birds in the courtyard when depicting plants. This creative technique, which resembles a landscape painting, weakens the boundaries between different types of painting.
His "Picture of a Snowy Tree and a Cold Bird" depicts a snow-covered bamboo leaf and a shrike bird perched on its branches. The birds' eyes are blazing, the branches are dry as iron, the lines are neat and rigorous, the overall tone is dark, and the white-pink impasto snow highlights the solemnity of the picture. This style of wilderness and cold forest, ethereal and silent, obviously draws on the characteristics of Cui Bai's flower and bird paintings in the Northern Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty courtyard flower and bird painting covers many different aesthetic trends from being proficient in sketching and learning about objects to poetic and artistic conception, which fully reflects the gradually broadening artistic vision and richer creative techniques of the Song Dynasty court flower and bird painters, which is indeed a model of Chinese Gongbi flower and bird painting, and is also the pinnacle of the courtyard flowers and birds in the past dynasties.