Crane has become one of the most common themes in China's flower-and-bird paintings, not only because of its beautiful shape, but also because of its more humanistic ideals.
The ancients said a lot about He Zhi. The crane's appearance is described as elegant and elegant, the crane's body is described as a hermit, the crane's shoulders are described as fairy wind, the crane's tires are described as a noble sitting in his arms, the crane's heart is described as a hyperactive mind, the crane's dance is described as a gesture of dancing, the crane's lifting is described as a gesture of stopping flowing, the crane's rising is described as a composition of flying, the crane's quietness is described as a place of leisure, the crane's voice is described as the movement of piano strings, and the crane is described. All these are beautiful without hesitation, which means Gao Hua.
As for painting cranes, Xue Ji, a famous painter who first studied this field in ancient books, was the first painter to promote the early Tang Dynasty. Although Xue's paintings have not been handed down to the world, we can get a glimpse of his charm of painting cranes from the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu, who were a little later in the same period. "Ten cranes in Gong Xue wrote Qingtian, full of true colors for a long time, but still out of the dust. He is depressed, has his own interests, and is as upright as a man "(Du Fu's Xue Shaobao painted a crane behind a house in Tongquan County). "Purple top smoke, Dan eyes bright. When you were in high spirits, Hollo was shocked. The shape stays in the corner, and the potential emerges from the sky. It is said that the long sound is in the wind and the morning light is as silent as water. Ning opera is beneficial to the ancient, and the more you look at it, the more beautiful it is "(Li Bai's Painting Crane in Xue Shaofu Hall, Jinxiang). It can be seen that in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when flower-and-bird painting began to become an independent theme, cranes were one of the important themes, and "writing the truth to the fullest" and vivid performance were the main criteria for judging the pros and cons.
In the 200 years after him, until the rise of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Xu Xi and Xishu, Xue Ji's crane painting skills were unparalleled.
Xu Xi's brushwork is concise and clear, and Huang Quan's brushwork is vigorous and skillful, which respectively created two flower-and-bird painting systems in the history of painting, "Huang Jiafu and Xu Xiye I", which directly led to the arrival of the heyday of flower-and-bird painting in the Song Dynasty. Huang Xu is a prolific painter, with 259 and 349 paintings recorded in Xuan He Hua Pu alone. It's just that there are not many cranes. Xu has a picture of cranes and bamboos, Huang has only three pictures of bamboo cranes, two pictures of six cranes, a picture of two cranes, a picture of a solitary crane, a picture of a cockscomb crane, and a picture of a crane in a banana water. There are only nine pictures in total. Have not been passed down to this day. It is said that when Huang Quan worked in Shu Painting Academy, he was asked to draw a portrait of a crane on the wall of Piandian, and made a picture of six cranes, in which six modes were drawn, namely "painting the sky, warning dew, pecking hair, dancing style, combing feathers and paying attention to steps", and "brilliance is better than cattle". After the painting was completed, Piandian was mistakenly thought to be close to the same kind by the real crane, hence the name ".
The painting academy system in Song Dynasty ensured the high prosperity of flower-and-bird painting, with many experts and excellent works. Even in Song Huizong and Evonne, cranes are the theme. There are 20 cranes with white feathers and black feathers, and their elegant appearance flies between the even sky spoons of azurite and Xiangyun. Obviously, it is no longer an ordinary sketch, but a symbolic painting to pray for Zhao, Song and the imperial court in An Xiangrui.