Han
Dynasty (BC 206 ¡V AD 221)
Style:
The pictures at the time, drawn in fine, black ink brushline, with flat washes of color filling the areas thus bounded, exemplify already the technique, and even something of the style, that was to remain basic and orthodox for many centuries. On the paintings are symbolic representations of humans, demons, animals and plants, set off as separate images by their outlines from the neutral silk ground.
The greatest Han paintings, as reported in the literature of that period, were secular. Portraits of eminent personages of the past, illustrations of historical anecdotes or classical texts, were most esteemed.