16.  Painting and Architecture at the Court of the Khans

Yuan dynasty 1279-1368

Concept: multiculturalism

Mongols:

Images of the Mongols in India and Europe:

Image of Mongols in China:

            Sincized, made Chinese, seduced by the superior civilization of the Han Chinese

Challenges to both images:

Religious beliefs

• Anige.   White Stupa.   Miaoying Temple, Beijing.   1279.   H: 164' (fig. 8-12)
• Shamanism

Mongolian language

• Script created by the Tibetan lama Phagspa (1235-1280)
• Mongolian and Chinese two of six languages inscribed on the walls of the Juyong Gateway in the Great Wall (changcheng 长城), Hebei. 1345.   White marble, H:   9'2” (fig. 8-13)

Maintaining interest in nomadic life

See Liu Guandao 劉貫道 (active 1275-1300), Khubilai Khan Hunting.   1280.   Hanging scroll, ink, color, silk, 6 x 41 in. (fig. 8-7)

Han Chinese:

Chinese literati culture at the Mongol court?            

Artisan status of painters at court:

            Demise of the Southern Song Painting Academy

            New employment of painters

Ren Renfa 任仁發 (1255-1328). Lean and Fat Horses.   Handscroll, ink and color on silk.  

Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254-1322), a “Recluse at Court”

The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu.   1287.   Handscroll, ink, colors, silk; 10 x 46 in.  (fig. 8-26) Compare with “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove” and Gu Kaizhi's “Nymph of the Luo River”

Autumn Colors in the Qiao and Hua Mountains 鵲華秋色圖 1296.   Handscroll, ink, colors, paper; 11 1/4 x 36 3/4 in. (28.4 x 93.2 cm)

Guan Daosheng 管道昇 (1262-1379; wife of Zhao Mengfu)

            Bamboo Groves in Mist and Rain. 1308.   Handscroll, ink, paper, 9 x 45 in. (fig. 8-27)

Zhao Mengjian 趙孟堅 (1199-before 1267; uncle of Zhao Mengfu in the Song imperial family).

            Narcissus. Handscroll, ink, paper; 13 1/16 x 146 1/2 in. (33.2 x 372.2 cm).