art history

CHINESE PERIODS NAMED AFTER DYNASTIES QING DYNASTY COLLAPSED IN 1911; CHAOTIC RULE UNDER THE REPUBLIC; JAPANESE INVASION IN THE 1930S; COMMUNIST FORCES; INTERNAL STRUGGLES; CULTURAL REVOLUTION JAPANESE INVADED KOREA; DIVIDED THE NATION IN TWO; KOREAN WAR CHINA  CALLIGRAPHY IS THE CENTRAL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION IN TRADITIONAL CHINA; EMPERORS ACCOMPLISHED CALLIGRAPHERS, PAINTERS, AND POETS  ARTISTS WORK UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF RELIGION OR STATE  LITERATI, A COUNTERCULTURE, A GROUP THAT PAINTED FOR THEMSELVES; HIGHLY INDIVIDUALIZED WORKS, DID NOT CARE FOR PUBLIC OPINION DAOISM/CONFUCIANISM  PHILOSOPHIES OF ANCIENT CHINA  DOMINATE ALL ASPECTS OF CHINESE ART  DAOISM; WANDER; ESCAPE SOCIETAL PRESSURE; ACHIEVING SERENITY; ONENESS WITH NATURE; EMPHASIZE INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION; YIN/YANG  CONFUCIANISM; BEHAVIOR, RELATIONSHIPS, AND DUTY; SYSTEM OF MUTUAL RESPECT; THEMES OF LOYALTY, MORALITY, GENEROSITY AMD HUMANITY; RESPECT FOR TRADITIONAL VA...

Portrait of Sin Sukju   (1417–1475). Imperial Bureau of Painting. c. 15th century C.E. Korea. Hanging scroll (ink and color on silk). This painting depicts Sin Sukju (1417-75) as a “meritorious subject,” or an official honored for his distinguished service at court and loyalty to the king during a tumultuous time.  Skilled in capturing the likeness of the sitter while still adhering to pictorial conventions, artists in the Royal Bureau of Painting (a government agency staffed with artists) created portraits of officials awarded this honorary title.  The Chosŏn or Yi dynasty, was founded in 1392 by the military leader Yi Sŏng-gye and lasted until 1910. It was the last imperial dynasty and the longest in Korea's history. This painting shows Sin Sukju dressed in his official robes with a black silk hat on his head.  In accordance with Korean portraiture conventions, court artists pictured subjects like Sin Sukju seated in a full-length view, often wit...

Gold and jade crown. Three Kingdoms Period, Silla Kingdom, Korea. Fifth to sixth century C.E. Metalwork. In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Korean peninsula was divided between three rivaling kingdoms. The most powerful of these was the Silla kingdom in the southeast of the peninsula. Chinese emissaries described the kingdom as a country of gold Worn around the forehead, this tree-shaped crown (daegwan) is the headband type found in the south in royal tombs at the Silla capital, Gyeongju.  Between the fifth and sixth centuries, Silla crowns became increasingly lavish with more ornamentation and additional, increasingly elongated branch-like protrusions.  Attached to the branch-like features of the crown are tiny gold discs and jade ornaments called gogok. These jade ornaments symbolize ripe fruits hanging from tree branches, representing fertility and abundance. The Silla crown demonstrates cultural interactions between the Korean peninsula and the Eurasian s...