Page 350 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

much to the color and richness of ordinary might be recognized as persons of rare genius, larger number were discerning connoisseurs —
Chinese daily life; the markets were filled with might even be granted elite rank and titles, but established and maintained a court academy, an
carvings and embroideries, basketry and lac- they still were considered to be highly special- assemblage of painters and calligraphers of out-
querwares, the coarser ceramics, woodblock ized craftsmen. In China painting and calligra- standing technical skills, who received official
prints for use as icons and as holiday deco- phy were less exotic, precisely because the tools titles and salaries. Most of them possessed the
rations, metalwares and leather goods, an employed were ubiquitous. To be sure, the great same general educational backgrounds as the
unending list. The skills to produce most of artists felt themselves to be extraordinary, apart scholar-officials but did not have to follow the
these, alas, have nearly vanished within the from others, and may have scorned the aesthetic official career patterns of examination and
present century, and we now elevate surviving capacities of more ordinary persons; nonethe- administrative appointment. They were the
examples to the level of art. less the fact that their technical means were "kept artists" of the court, and their surviving
A second point has to do with the composi- employed by millions of persons in the uses of works are in the main descriptive and deco-
tion of the artistic community in China as com- everyday life, kept the spheres of high art rative, reflecting the tastes of their imperial
pared with the West. The artist community in within the psychic access of all who put brush to patrons. Chinese literati, however, considered
traditional China (if we exclude that portion paper. themselves, not their rulers, to be the true
which produced what the Chinese held to be Out of those circumstances emerged an artis- guardians of China's cultural values, and the
crafts) was virtually identical with the entire tic community of strikingly different composi- literati of Song (and even more so of Yuan)
elite stratum, the literati (wen ren), men who, tion from its counterpart in the West. The increasingly adopted the philosophical position
whether in or out of office, had been educated broad elite social base of its arts set China apart; that the true function of painting was neither to
in the classical tradition for government service. Chinese artists were expected to be persons of describe nor to decorate but to express the emo-
This phenomenon, for which there are pecu- cultivation and of social responsibility, who tional responses and the enduring character of
liarly Chinese reasons, seems .to have few paral- shared the roles and aspirations of all the elite. the painter. The corollary of this position was
lels in other societies. Let us look at the social If they were not actually in government service, that only a truly estimable man could be a true
dimensions of the three most valued of the arts: they were eligible for it or qualified by their painter. Some outstanding poet-painters and
poetry, calligraphy, and painting. education to seek such eligibility. Their art was calligraphers among the Song literati began to
All males sufficiently learned to sit for the an expected accompaniment of their public roles make a point of painting and writing in a delib-
civil service examinations through which one as social leaders and government officials; when erately artless, markedly non-professional (but
entered the official elite (perhaps, in 1500, close despite their qualifications they pointedly chose often no less skillful) style to display the artistic
to one million, including qualified men who to forgo those roles, the Chinese considered independence and integrity comprised in this
never in fact sat for the examinations) were them to be "recluses/ which did not signify expressive ideal. This philosophical division
expected to be able to compose technically cor- anchorites withdrawn from society but simply introduced competition and intellectual stimu-
rect poetry. Poets of true genius may not have persons of learning who did not strive for office. lus, and led to some of the highest achievements
been more numerous in China than elsewhere, Shen Zhou (1427-1509), the most noted in Song and Yuan dynasty arts.
but people who wrote competent poetry were. painter of the period, is an example (see cat. By Ming times this wen ren stance had
Moreover the best poets were within the main- 310-315); he came of a landed family near become a somewhat precious affectation, but
stream of elite society: scholar-officials, or qual- Suzhou that for four generations had produced one nonetheless widely and firmly held. In
ified to be so. Their poetry addressed the entire noted artists and poets. None of those forebears their roles as historians or critics of art the lit-
elite sector of their society as fellow poets; both had held office, and Shen himself steadfastly erati could not ignore the Ming period profes-
the creation of poetry and its critical appraisal refused to do so, although he was in intimate sional painters (often associated loosely with
were acts in which all participated. Of course, contact with many high officials of his region. something approaching a court academy), and
the great poets were recognized as such, but Shen collected books, art objects, antiquities, they genuinely admired some of them. Yet they
their achievement differed only in degree from and craft products, and he dabbled in a number unfailingly upheld the "amateur" wen ren
the rest. of minor arts and curious pursuits. One may painters as the bearers of a nobler tradition. The
This description of the composition of the almost conclude that the high arts, as defined in distinction between the amateur wen ren (and
artist community applies as well to calligraphers China, were those that the entire elite stratum often semi-recluse) painters and the profes-
and painters. Because ink, paper, and brush could be expected to practice at some level of sional painters was exaggerated by tradition-
were the basic tools of literacy as well as high competence. The artistic crafts, on the other minded — that is by almost all — Chinese art
art, everyone who could write commanded the hand, were so specialized in technique, or so historians. Until recent years Western students
same techniques as the great calligraphers and removed from the concerns of the literati, that of Chinese art have tended to follow their lead.
understood from their own practice what made those "persons of literary cultivation" (wen ren} It is now clear that the distinction is somewhat
calligraphy the greatest of the arts. In the West seldom tried their hands at them, though they artificial and that a few important painters of
calligraphy was an applied craft of limited scope might admire and avidly collect the best of the the mid-Ming period moved in both milieus.
for artistic expression; although there too every craft objects to enhance their living envi- Even so, most art historians from that time to
literate person shared the calligrapher's material ronments. Thus their cultivated taste affected this have clung to the distinction and exalted
means, that did not give either of them access to trends in both the arts and the artistic crafts. wen ren art over that of the professionals.
a supreme form of high art. 29 Finally, a note on a different social dimension The present exhibition boldly departs from
As for painting, in the West it was a techno- of Chinese painting is in order. From the Song that tradition in giving equal weight to painters
logically specialized skill employing brushes, dynasty onward a development occurred that in of both categories. Here we can see master-
pigments, oils, and canvas or other painting some measure bifurcated the history of Chinese pieces of both, note their obviously distinctive
grounds —tools with which the average person painting. Song emperors — of whom several qualities, and perhaps discover our own prefer-
never dealt. In the West, too, great painters were gifted painters and/or calligraphers, and a ences. Probably the often bolder, more colorful,

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