At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, Huang Quan became a model of flower-and-bird painting in the Academy, and Xu Xi initiated the flower-and-bird painting with light color and freehand brushwork. Xu Xi and Huang Quan both represent the new level of flower-and-bird painting in the Five Dynasties, which has an important historical position and is called "Huang Xu Erti" in history. Since then, the development of flower-and-bird painting has continuously developed and changed on the basis of these two schools, and gradually formed a colorful artistic pattern. In the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, Cui Bai and Wu changed the painting style of college painting, rebelled against Huang Jiagong's exquisite painting style, combined bold and vigorous brushwork with exquisite brushwork, and pursued plain artistic conception, which injected new vitality into college painting. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, Song Huizong and Evonne accepted different painting styles, which made the development of meticulous flower-and-bird painting reach its peak. Flower-and-bird painting in the Southern Song Dynasty continued the style of meticulous figure painting, with panoramic flower-and-bird painting and broken branches sketching as the main features. Generally speaking, the court paintings in the Song Dynasty were richer and more neat, while the wild painting style was more popular with literati and hermits.

First of all, learning from nature is the most basic

Song Dynasty was a prosperous period of meticulous flower-and-bird painting. As the mainstream of this period, flower-and-bird painters pay attention to going deep into life, emphasizing sketching, advocating expressing inner feelings when observing objects, and opposing passive depiction of objects. In the scroll notes, the painter recorded the detailed observation of bird structure: "From the mouth, beak, mouth, face, eye margin, jungle brain hair, drooping hair, sharp wings, clams wings, big knots and small nests." From the second to the sixth tip, it is expected that the wind will sweep the grass and scatter the tail, press the tail, belly hair, leg prayer, tail pheasant, clawed foot (three sections), claw (two sections), claw (four sections) and claw (one section). Through the above statement, we can reflect the in-depth and meticulous observation of objects by flower-and-bird painters in Song Dynasty. In order to observe the shapes and habits of flowers and birds, painters in Song Dynasty always "visit the old nursery at night and watch it". Zhao Chang, a painter, calls himself "sketching Zhao Chang". When the morning dew is not dry, he often looks at the erotic appearance of various flowers and plants around the fence and describes the plants in the garden in detail. Yi Yuanji, a painter who is good at drawing apes, went deep into the dense forest around the two lakes to observe the whereabouts of wild animals. He also keeps birds at home, plants flowers and bamboos, and watches them day and night, so he has the superb painting ability of "writing stories from the heart and writing them in the distance". Song Huizong and Evonne personally led the court painters to learn flower sketch, so meticulous that they asked the painters in the hospital to observe whether the peacock raised his left foot or his right foot first, and to draw the changes of stamens and leaves in different tenses when painting Chinese rose flowers.

Second, vivid portrayal

Painters in Song Dynasty advocated vigorous natural vitality and tried their best to sketch. In painting, the main style of courtyard painting in Song Dynasty is to reproduce the beauty, purity, freshness and luster of flowers and fruits, the luster of cockscomb feathers of birds and the changes of feather texture. From the works handed down from generation to generation, it can be seen that the painter's description of the physiological structure and life state of the object is indeed meticulous. For example, the anonymous waterfowl map of Polygonum cuspidatum depicts a corner of a pond in autumn. In the picture, a ridged bird is leaning over a giant knotweed flower hanging into the water, staring intently at the shrimp swimming in the water. The shape of the ridgeback is accurate and vivid. The painter outlines the bird's body with extremely delicate and powerful lines, shows the stiff wing feathers, fluffy back feathers, soft belly feathers and the changes of yin and yang and bumps of the bird's body with layers of light and shade, and then uses extremely fine lines to "silk" the hair and feathers of the ridgeback. With skillful painting skills and superb realistic ability, the painter portrayed the ridgeback vividly. In the treatment of leaves, the vitality of new leaves is dyed with light green, and the withered old leaves are painted with ochre ink. The aquatic plants and shrimps in the pond are "embellished" in a broad sense. The shrimp is washed with a pen, which is "both in form and spirit" and then dyed with light ink, giving the pond a "light autumn water" atmosphere. Although the frame is small, the painter reproduces the vivid natural image with the exquisite painting technique of "diligence" and the freehand brushwork technique of "smoothness", and achieves the exquisite artistic effect of meticulous brushwork. Another example is Lin Chun's "Fruit Bird Map", in which the painter uses hairline brushwork to outline the leaves of apples, new, old, straight and back. Describe the broken and withered leaves after being bitten by insects and attacked by autumn frost with the brushwork of accumulating points. Draw the outline of the bird with delicate and concise lines, and the coloring is easy and flexible, highlighting the smart and lively posture of the bird.

Appreciating the works can deeply feel the painter's meticulous observation of life and rigorous and solid painting skills in the Song Dynasty. In order to get the true essence of the image, the painter observed the subtlety of the state of things and drew the essence of the image. So the study of the physical state of the pen is not only about the shape.

Third, the creation of artistic conception

"Poetry and painting are consistent, striving for perfection and freshness", and the environment of poetry and painting should be consistent, which is the externalization of the painter's mood. In Song Dynasty, meticulous flower-and-bird painting, while pursuing meticulous description, used techniques such as association, implication, lyricism, contrast and contrast to create artistic conception of the picture, so as to achieve emotional artistic effect. For example, Cui Bai's "Double Happiness Map" is set in the wilderness in late autumn: swaying branches, dancing wild bamboos, flying hay and dead leaves are used to render the fierceness of the wind. Two magpies go down against the wind, one leaning against the tree and the other flying in the air, as if fighting against the strong wind; At this time, the wind, the sound of trees and the sound of birds are intertwined fiercely, which makes the tension of the picture reach the extreme; Stunned by this "tense atmosphere", the hare looked back warily at the chirping magpie. It raised its right leg to escape and hesitated. At this moment, time seems to have stopped. Painting is a silent poem. Painters use personification, contrast, exaggeration and other techniques to regard artistic conception and interest as the soul of painting, and describe it with grand and open brushwork, giving people a delicate and true texture. The viewer seems to be there, with the painter, and feels vivid and vivid.

IV. Place of business

The meticulous flower-and-bird painting in Song Dynasty emphasizes subtle and ingenious conception, seeking novelty in stability and ethereal in fullness, giving people the beauty of nature, harmony and integrity. For example, the anonymous pomegranate oriole is a stable and changeable composition form. The arrangement of details such as oriole, bug, pomegranate, trunk and leaves in the painting is rigorous and ingenious: the oriole bird standing on the trunk inclined to the lower left is just in the center of the picture, and the oriole's upward inclined body and drooping tail control the balance of the bird's body in the painting, making it in a state of stretching and contracting; The arrangement of bugs in the painting is a wonderful stroke. The bug twisted its body desperately and tried its best to get rid of the muzzle of the bird. The contest between birds and insects is quietly unfolding. As an auxiliary lining of the picture, the two kinds of pomegranate, extroverted and introverted, overlap, which neither usurps the role of the master, but also balances the whole picture; As a structural line supporting the picture, the trunk plays the role of a bridge in the picture, running through and supporting the whole picture, so that pomegranate and oriole are naturally combined together; The rising of branchlets and the pitching and turning of leaves further expand the power of branching operation. Another "Lotus Out of the Water" also reflects the wonderful layout. In the center of the picture, a blooming lotus flower, two old and tender leaves and three interlaced lotus leaves are skillfully combined, which makes people feel as if they are in a full and lush lotus pond, lifelike, elegant and poetic. Even in paper and silk, it shows the magnificent weather of nature. The reason should be the beauty of composition: the overlapping combination of lotus, lotus leaf and circular picture makes the picture full of life tension, the relative and overlapping arrangement of petals increases the rhythm change of the picture, while the orderly arrangement of three stems extends the space of the picture, and the combination of various factors makes the picture more plump and full, which naturally produces the artistic conception of "Lotus leaf can be used for farmland" and "Lotus leaves reflect different colors of the sun".

In Song Dynasty, meticulous flower-and-bird painters used realistic brushwork and applied ink and powder to make the images in the paintings vivid, fresh and moist. Layout, modeling, color stylization, artistic conception and interest are regarded as the soul of painting, leaving us exquisite and interesting works of art with poetic brushwork. As a model of China's meticulous flower-and-bird painting, Song Academy's rigorous and elegant flower-and-bird painting style occupies an important position in the painting history of China for nearly a thousand years, and it still has influence today.