Bird-and-Flower Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Collection of the Nanjing Museum

Author: Xu Huiping Liu Jianping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-07-01
Features: Chinese flower-and-bird painting is a late-blooming genre. If the Six Dynasties, Tang, and Five Dynasties were the peak of development for figure painting, then the Five Dynasties, Song, and Yuan were the peak of landscape painting. The peak of flower-and-bird painting, however, was the Ming, Qing, and even the modern era. This phenomenon of one genre rising as another falls, with peaks following one another, is due to very complex reasons. It is linked to the overall state of cultural development and is intertwined with the political and economic conditions of the times. It is also influenced by philosophical thought and humanistic customs, and is determined by the inherent laws of the history of painting art.