Bird-and-flower painting

Bird-and-flower painting
Early Autumn, 13th century, by Song loyalist painter Qian Xuan. The decaying lotus leaves and dragonflies hovering over stagnant water are likely a veiled criticism of Mongol rule.
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	花鳥畫
Simplified Chinese	花鸟画
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin huāniǎo-huà
Vietnamese name
Quốc ngữ	Hoa điểu họa
Hán tự	花鳥畫
Korean name
Hangul	화조화
Hanja	花鳥畵
Transcriptions - Revised Romanization hwajohwa - McCune- Reischauer hwajohwa
Japanese name
Kanji	花鳥画
Transcriptions - Romanization kachō-ga

Bird-and-flower painting is a kind of Chinese painting named after its subject matter. Normally, most bird-and-flower paintings belong to the scholar-artist style of Chinese painting.

According to Chinese tradition, bird-and-flower painting covers "flowers, birds, fish, and insects" (Traditional Chinese: 花鳥魚蟲, Simplified Chinese: 花鸟鱼虫 huā, niǎo, yú, chóng). It can thus deal with a wide range of natural topics, including flowers (plants), fish, insects, birds, pets (dogs, cats) etc.

Varieties

According to painting technique:

• Ink and Wash Painting (水墨花鸟画/水墨花鸟画). Representatives: Lin Liang (林良), Qi Baishi (齐白石), Zhang Daqian (张大千)
• Fine-brush (工笔花鸟/工笔花鸟画)
  • Fine-brush with Ink and Wash Painting (工笔水墨/兼工带水墨). Representatives: Lin Liang (林良), Ren Yi (任颐)
  • Fine-brush with Colour (工彩)
    • Fine-brush with Heavy Colour (工笔重彩)
    • Fine-brush with Light Colour (工笔淡彩). Representatives: Emperor Huizong (赵佶), Lü Ji (吕纪), Lin Liang (林良)

• Freehand Style (写意花鸟/写意花鸟画)
  • Great Freehand Style (大写意)
  • Slight Freehand Style (小写意). Representatives: Tang Yin (唐寅), Xu Wei (徐渭), Wu Changshuo (吴昌硕), Ren Yi (任颐)

• Fine-brush with Freehand Style (兼工带写)

Representatives: Lin Liang (林良), Tang Yin (唐寅)

See also

• Bamboo painting
• Mogu

External links

• Chinese Flower Painting at China Online Museum
• Chinese Bird Painting at China Online Museum