Five Dynasties (906-960)

 Style:

In the early Five Dynasties it was the creation of a more monumental landscape type, with a new sense of solidity in the rocks and mountains. At the same period there was another important school in the south. The typical productions of this southern school are river landscapes with rounded hills, drawn in a broad, relaxed manner, with a profusion of small dots and streaks of ink softening the forms and giving them an earthy texture.

 The quest of the Five Dynasties and early Sung landscapists was for pictorial unification. The subordination or elimination of color was a move toward that end, since the tapestry-like variegation of early landscape had tended to fragment the composition. A new emphasis on brushwork gave surface consistency to the painting. Most important of all, methods were developed to create a spatial continuum within the picture: the use of concealing mists, the convincing depiction of recessions into depth, the drawing of distance objects in thinner tones of ink to suggest a hazy atmosphere.

 

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