A good Chinese painting needs a good black-and-white layout and a good seal of poetry and calligraphy to perfectly show the unique beauty of a Chinese painting. Therefore, people often regard the poems, inscriptions (calligraphy) and seal cutting on the screen as the "three wonders" of Chinese painting.
A good Chinese painting, poem, book and seal are interrelated and complementary. Taking painting as the main body, combining poetry, calligraphy and printing organically is essentially to give full play to their respective specialties, increase the content depth and artistic realm of the works, and achieve the effect of "both form and spirit" and "vivid charm".
First, the combination of poetry and painting is a major feature of Chinese painting.
Poetry and painting are two different arts. Poetry is the art of language and time, while painting is the art of modeling and space. Both of them require simplicity, lyricism and rhythm, and pursue the creation of artistic conception to express the author's feelings and stimulate the audience's imagination and association, as the ancients said: "It is difficult to draw a scene, taking poetry as the body; Poems that are difficult to recite are supplemented by paintings. " For this reason, Chinese painting has always advocated the combination of poetry and painting, which is manifested in two aspects: on the one hand, the inner realm is blended, that is, the artistic conception of painting, the poetic composition, image and color, and there is no poetry in painting, but there is poetry in painting. The so-called "poem in painting" and "painting is tangible poem". As for writing poems on the screen, it only appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the pursuit of the same realm of poetry and painting in Chinese painting expanded to the pursuit of the blending of poetry and painting forms, which not only directly inscribed poetry on the screen to form an integral part of the screen, but also gradually extended the content of inscription to words, essays and so on. In the Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo said when evaluating Wang Wei's poems and paintings: "There are poems in the paintings; There are paintings in poetry. " It can be seen that many painters are both poets and painters.
Second, law and painting have always been harmonious.
China has a saying that "a painter must be good at writing". Zhao Mengfu, a famous painter in Yuan Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "Stone white is like a fly, wood white is like a pen, but writing bamboo needs teaching. If anyone can know this, you will know that painting and calligraphy are the same. " The "flying white" here refers to a dry and pale cursive brushwork. "Shua", also known as Shua Shu and Da Zhuan, is the font used in the legendary "Shi Shua pian", which is characterized by its round and steady writing style. "Personal method" refers to the overall brushwork of calligraphy. As can be seen from the poem, he attaches great importance to the importance of calligraphy and the relationship between calligraphy and painting, and nurtures painting with books. The two are inseparable.
Calligraphy plays an important role in Chinese painting. The most basic reason why China's calligraphy can become an art lies in the particularity of Chinese characters and brush. Brush is a traditional writing tool in China, which is characterized by softness and elasticity, so it can write structures and stippling with different shapes and artistic conception, such as thickness, rigidity, frustration and shade. It is this special tool that makes it possible for China people's calligraphy to become a unique art in the world.
In calligraphy, the importance of brush strokes is emphasized, and the key point is the galloping of pens in lines. The same is true of painting. The methods of raising the pen are centering, hiding the front, back front, side pen, handing the pen, etc. For example, freehand brushwork is better than Zhang Dian's Wild Grass, and meticulous brushwork is like regular script. Some people even combine bamboo pole and calligraphy from leaves to branches, and painting bamboo pole is like writing seal script; Draw bamboo branches as cursive script, bamboo leaves as portrait, and bamboo knots as official scripts. It can be seen that calligraphy and painting are inseparable When appreciating a Chinese painting, we should start from its inherent skills and observe its shape to see its advantages. A good calligrapher is undoubtedly a good painter in China.
Third, the inscription and seal have a great effect on the layout of the picture.
Inscriptions are divided into "long questions" and "poor paragraphs". Those with more inscriptions are called "long questions", which can be a few words, two poems, a poem or even a longer poem. Remember the year, month, day and name with few inscriptions, or just write the name. This style called "poor money" or "short money" has "style", and the position, size and physique of the characters can't be casual. Inscriptions can adjust the center of gravity, coordinate the rhythm and complement each other. In addition, the brushwork of the inscription should be harmonious. For example, in Pan Tianshou's Pomegranate, the subtle and tough brushwork of the artist's inscription contrasts with the vigorous brushwork of painting, which sets each other off. He processed the inscription into a horizontal body, and the shape of the words was divided into two types, which were written in the upper half of a large space. In this way, the space on the screen is completely different, full of changes and creativity. Some painters who are good at painting and calligraphy often write a long paragraph on the screen, sometimes several paragraphs in different fonts, such as ascending, printing, official seal and cursive, and sometimes there are only simple font sizes on the screen. These are based on the needs of picture composition, black and white, rhythm and space, which the viewer must know.
The seal is signed from the inscription. However, a small bright red seal plays an important role in this painting and is an inseparable part of this painting. If used well, the picture can be refreshed. The style of the seal should be coordinated with the style of the painting, such as a technique. This requires painters to know seal cutting in particular. Therefore, in China, painters usually paint by themselves, requiring painters not only to paint, but also to write, understand poetry and engrave.
Although the seal looks small, there are many articles in it, and stamping is also an art. White printing, with a lot of red, looks heavy and suitable for waking places. Zhu, less red, looks lighter, suitable for places with less white blocks. Of course, in the picture, where to use light (Zhu), where to use heavy (white), the size and shape of the seal, where to type, and how much to type should be carefully considered from the overall needs.
Generally, the seals used in traditional Chinese painting are famous seals and leisure seals. Name stamp is divided into name stamp and nickname stamp, which are usually placed under the painter's name or nickname. A leisure chapter is a seal printed with poems or idioms, which can be divided into "corner-pressing chapter" and "opening chapter". The corner-pressing chapter is usually placed in the lower corner of the frame. Make a chapter in the upper right corner of painting and calligraphy, the shape is mostly vertical rectangle, which echoes the famous chapter in the lower left corner.
Although a good ink painting can be divided into six colors, it will be more interesting if it can be stamped with a bright red seal. For another example, when Pan Tianshou writes lotus flowers, he often fills a seal in the middle of the picture frame to make the picture compact and coherent. In Qing Dynasty, Qianlong liked to inscribe inscriptions, which were numerous and endless, greatly affecting the aesthetic feeling of his works. Many beginners of Chinese painting don't know the importance of the seal position, which leads to the incongruity between the seal position and the painting.
Fourth, summary.
The application of poetry, calligraphy and seal cutting is the main part of the national style of Chinese painting. How to make good use of the seal of poetry and calligraphy, make the three organically combined and dialectically unified, and add icing on the cake to Chinese painting. It is also an important task for Chinese painting workers to constantly enrich and develop the "three wonders" art of Chinese painting poetry, calligraphy and printing, so as to carry it forward.
(Author: Yanchi County Library, Ningxia)