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- Sometimes many of these additions spoil the visual appeal of the paintings, but nevertheless the addition of such seals often provides proof of authenticity, and helps us in tracing the history of a particular painting.
Some ten different sizes of brushes are avail�able to the painter. The brushes for delicate work are usually of rabbit hair with the point being so thin that it does not exceed the breadth of a single hair. Those for bolder strokes are of goat or sheep hair. Other types of hair used include the weasel, sable, fox, deer, and pig. Some artists have been known to prefer such exotic materials as wolf hair, mouse whiskers and even human baby hair.
The brush is held perpendicularly as in the writing of Chinese characters. It is gripped mainly by the thumb, index and middle fingers at a distance of io to 12 centimetres from the tip. Fingers should scarcely move. For large objects the arm can be rested on the elbow and on a wrist rest for fine details. Constant practice makes it possible to set down sure strokes and perfectly modulated lines of continuous strength.
However, not all Chinese paintings were carried out in this manner. In the history of Chinese painting we repeatedly come across artists who tried to replace the brush by another instrument: by a lotus, the end of a rope, a cloth rag, and a worn out brush, for instance. How�ever, most of these efforts amounted to little more than playful experiments which quickly passed into oblivion. Other ancient artists tried extreme forms of eccentric experimentation. For example, one eighth-century master spread his silk on the floor and poured ink on it. By the addition of a few brush lines, he was able to turn it into a landscape. Another artist faced in one direction and painted in another, waving his brush in time to music. Perhaps the most eccentric painter was the one who while intoxi�cated would dip his head in a pail of ink and flop it onto the painting surface. Having spat�tered the surface with a great mass of ink, he would sometimes kick it, rub it and smudge it until, as if by magic, a scene would appear and no trace of the original spilling was left.
Yet another eccentric method of painting which enjoyed a certain amount of popularity for a considerable time was finger painting. Finger painters used both the tips of the fingers and long nails instead of the brush. Many scholar-painters displayed their disdain for manual labour by letting their nails grow as long
as possible. One fingernail was usually split like a pen, so that it could hold ink and could be used for drawing lines. Finger paintings by Gao Qipei (c. 1672-1734) [26] and Zhu Lunhan
(1680-1760) [27] are represented in this exhi�bition.
While painting in colours from vegetable and mineral pigments has always been practised in China, the greatest achievements of Chinese painting have been in monochrome. The appre�ciation of the possibilities of ink in all its shades on paper or silk was the great discovery of the Chinese. The ink the Chinese painter uses is a solidified ink cake. The ink is a mixture of lamp�black or pine soot and glue pressed into sticks and dried. The artist grinds the cake of ink and mixes it with a few drops of water on a stone slab. Ink may be thick or thin, light or dark (from raven black to a delicate dove grey). The higher the quality of the solidified ink, the more lustrous the effect on the paper or silk. An immense range and beauty of tone are possible depending on the amount of water mixed with it. A good artist can produce works of such subtle black and grey shading that a sense of colour can be achieved.
The same brush and ink are used for the calligraphy which is found on the paintings. Calligraphy and painting are closely related and have many common points. Painting, in fact, probably grew directly out of the use of the brush for writing. To the Chinese, calligraphy is as much an art as painting. Calligraphy is not mere handwriting, it must show originality, style, strength and personality. A fine example of calligraphy mounted as a scroll will receive as much appreciation as a painting.
Poetry and painting are also intimately con�nected. From Yuan and Ming times, it became in vogue for artists among the scholar-painter class, who were also skilled at poetry and callig�raphy, to write a poem on their paintings. The poems were often lyrical, complementing the substance through narration, therefore becoming one with the painting, each complementing the growth and development of the other. The poem is often the soul of the painting and may tell us more about the private life of the painter, than can be derived from any other source. An inscription of this kind may turn an otherwise conventional painting into a very human docu�ment. The poem is often as important to the understanding of the landscape as is the pic�torial content. In perfect blending of the three
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