Beijing

Flower-and-Bird Painting already appeared in the remote past of China. Patterns of flowers and birds on pottery, bronze vessels and phoenix paintings on silk during the Warring States Period (7th-4th centuries B.C), were the early indications of the Chinese’s people interest in such themes. These ancient patterns and images were rather simple and plain but they slowly developed into a mature and important genre of art with a variety of highly developed techniques, schools and a well established theoretical background.

Flower-and-Bird Painting did not become an independent art form until the mid and late Tang dynasty around the 8^th and 9^th centuries, it is interesting to see how this form of art slowly “creeps” from the background of initially serving as ornamental pattern for daily utensils, later serving as symbolic, metaphoric and allegorical elements in the background of figure painting and all the way to the final stage where we see flowers and birds as independent themes. In pre-Tang and Tang Dynasty figure paintings we see birds and flowers symbolizing the mood and temperament of the human figures depicted, the characters seldom directly look at each other, instead there is a relationship with a flower they hold, a tree they sit beside or with the birds that fly around them. At this stage of development, flowers and birds serve as symbols, this is a further development from the ornamental function they had on bronze wear and pottery. This symbolic function was certainly an important stepping stone on the way to become an independent art form during the mid and late Tang, and indeed, Flower-and-Bird Paintings preserved their symbolic role and must be observed and enjoyed in this context.

 Flower-and-Bird Painting further developed during the Five Dynasties period (907-960), and reached maturity during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The Five Dynasty Period was a crucial era in the shaping of this style as one of the three major trends in Chinese traditional painting together with Landscape Painting and Figure Painting. Notable artists of this period were Huang Quan and Xu Xi who had great influence over Song painting especially through their followers. Huang Quan’s son Huang Jucai helped establish the classical Flower-and-Bird painting of the Huang family as the standard style of the Song court at Bianliang, today’s Kaifeng where the famous emperor Song Huizong became the patron and promoter of an elegant and realistic style of painting, Song Huizong was a gifted painter and calligrapher himself and some of his paintings are landmarks in Chinese art. The Flower-and-Bird paintings were the Arian part of the Song Painting Academy’s vast art collection, indicating the great importance the imperial court attached to this genre and the popularity it enjoyed. Great painters such as Cui Bai, who together with his contemporaries, took Chinese painting to a new level in which the artist pursues, not only change and variation, but tries to give the picture a real feeling of movement and flux. This tendency is clearly seen in Cui Bai’s Two Magpies and a Hare, the great masterpiece of the famous Landscape painter Guo Xi "early Spring" and Liu Cai’s Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers. These works are all fascinating examples of the sense of movement these artists pursued.

The tradition of Flower-and-Bird-Painting evolved into two main trends, namely the Gong Bi tradition where artists focused on small details, careful application of color and meticulous technique, giving their art a realistic and ornamental feeling. This tradition evolved through the influence of the Huang family mentioned above, while the other trend of Xie Yi  which was more expressionistic and impulsive, stemmed from Xu Xi who was the two Huang’s contemporary during the Five Dynasties Period. 

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