Yuan Dynasty painting

Author: Yu Hui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The Yuan Dynasty painting, with nearly a century of history, is rich and diverse, which is attributed to the openness of Yuan Dynasty culture. In 1271, the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols unified China while further opening the door for China to the world, allowing various foreign cultures to flood into the Central Plains society and creating a vibrant scene of multicultural development. The emperors of the Yuan Dynasty, especially Emperor Renzong Aiyubala (1312–1320), were enthusiastic about painting activities and did not impose aesthetic constraints on court and non-court painters. The social backdrop of coexisting diverse cultures brought new vitality to the development of painting art, and the content, form, and style of painting also presented a diversified pattern. Folk painting, painting that bridged scholars and craftsmen, court painting, and religious paintings of Taoism and Buddhism all flourished like the scene of swallows flying and grasses growing, with flowers blooming everywhere. The collection of Yuan Dynasty painting in the Palace Museum is unparalleled in quantity and quality, representing the artistic achievements of various painting genres and schools of the Yuan Dynasty art scene. Among them, there are over 130 paper and silk paintings, as well as a large set and three fragments of temple and monastery murals.
This volume presents a single collection of Yuan Dynasty paintings from the museum's holdings, organized into eight parts based on similar clusters of painters and comparable painting themes, following the chronological order. This arrangement not only connects to the Jin, Tang, and Song Dynasty paintings organized by genre but also bridges to the Ming and Qing Dynasty paintings organized by school. In terms of collecting works, paintings previously misidentified as from earlier dynasties have been reevaluated and confirmed as new additions to the Yuan Dynasty collection. At the same time, this volume excludes multiple paintings previously believed to be Yuan Dynasty works, retaining only a few copies with historical significance and artistic value.