Asian Arts

CharacteristicsIt shows culture and history of the country
where it is from.It focuses more on the natural and
spiritual.There are 2 countries highlighted in this
era: China and India

Chinese Art

Characteristics
 Forms

of art have been influenced

by great philosophers, teachers,
religious figures and even
political leaders.
 Divided

into periods by the ruling

dynasties.

Historical
Development
221 BC

Chinese Art
Early forms of art in China were made from pottery and jade in the
Neolithic period ceramics were unpainted and most often
cord-marked

.

Banpo (1953)
discovered at the Yellow River Valley

The Bronze Age in China began with the Xia
Dynasty.
Shang Dynasty has more elaborate objects,
including many ritual vessels that were
crafted.
The most common motif in the Zhou
Dynasty is the taotie, which shows a
mythological being presented frontally as
though squashed onto a horizontal plane to

Bronze jue
(wine
vessel)

Ding from late
Zhou Dynasty

Early
Imperial
China (221
BC–AD 220)



In early imperial China, porcelain was
introduced and was refined to the point
that in English the word china has
become synonymous with high-quality
porcelain. Around the 1st century AD,
Buddhism arrived in China, though it did
not become popular until the 4th century.

Qin DynastyThe Terracotta Army, inside the Mausoleum of the First Qin
Emperor, consists of more than 7,000 life-size
tomb terra-cotta figures of warriors and horses buried with
the self-proclaimed first Emperor of Qin in 210–209 BC.The terracotta army belongs to Emperor Qin Shi Huang
and they are there to guard his burial site as well as
protecting the entry to the afterlife. He was the
dynasty  Emperor who managed to unify China so that it
became a central state and it was also because of him
that the foundations of the great wall were laid down.

Terracotta Army

•The Han Dynasty was known for jade burial suits.

A Han Dynasty Jade burial suit
at the National Museum of



Buddhist architecture and sculpture
thrived in the Sui and Tang dynasty.
Of which, the Tang Dynasty was
particularly open to foreign influence.
Buddhist sculpture returned to a
classical form, inspired by Indian art
of the Gupta period. Towards the late
Tang dynasty, all foreign religions
were outlawed to support Taoism.



Paintings in traditional style involved the same
techniques as calligraphy and is done with a
brush dipped in black or colored ink.In the Tang Dynasty , the primary subject matter
of paintings was the landscapes known as
shanshui (mountain water) painting.These landscapes are usually monochromatic
and sparse. Its purpose is to grasp an emotion or
atmosphere so as to catch the rhythm of nature.

Shanshui

An anchorite, by Dai Jin



In the Song Dynasty, poetry was marked by a
lyric poetry known as Ci ( 詞 ) which expressed
feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona.
Also in the Song dynasty, paintings of more
subtle expression of landscapes appeared, with
blurred outlines and mountain contours which
conveyed distance through an impressionistic
treatment of natural phenomena. It was during
this period that in painting, emphasis was
placed on spiritual rather than emotional
elements, as in the previous period.

Late imperial China (1368–1911)
•Under the Ming dynasty, Chinese
culture bloomed.
•Narrative painting, with a wider color
range and a much busier composition
than the Song paintings, was
immensely popular during the time.
•European culture began to make an
impact on Chinese art during this
period.

Art Types
 Chinese

folk art
 Literature
 Visual Art
 Chinese music
 Performing arts
 Architecture

Chinese folk art

Literature

Visual art

Chinese Music

Performing Arts

Architecture

Indian Art
 3rd millennium BC

Indian

art can be classified into specific

periods each reflecting particular
religious, political and cultural
developments.
To

viewers schooled in the Western

tradition, Indian art may seem overly
ornate and sensuous

he earliest examples are petroglyph

Bhimbetka rock painting, Madhya Pradesh, India (c. 30,000
years old
)

Indian Painting
Mural Painting or Indian
Fresco
Mughal

Painting

Mural Painting

Bhimbetka, 1500-2000BC

Mughal Painting

Raja Ravi Varma's Shakuntala

Babur Receives a Courtier, 1589,
by Farrukh Baig

Indian Sculpture
 Bronze

and stones were commonly

used.
 During

the 2nd to 1st century BCE

in far northern India, sculptures
became more explicit,
representing episodes of the
Buddha’s life and teachings.

Bronze Statue of Nataraja

Apsara (10

th

AD)



Another of the most popular art forms is
called Rangoli.

Rangoli Design

 Rangoli

is a form of sand

painting decoration that uses
finely ground white powder
and colors, and is commonly
used outside homes.

Indian Rock –art architecture

Panoramic view of relief sculpture at
Mahabalipuram,
a World Heritage Site

 Architecture
Varaha Vave Temple
(late 7th century)

Ellora Cave

The temple complex at Khajuraho—adhering to the
shikhara temple style architecture

Akshardham Temple in Delhi
completed in 2005 

Taj Mahal

 It

was built by Mughal emperor

Shah Jahan in memory of his third
wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
 The

Taj Mahal is widely

recognized as "the jewel of
Muslim art in India and one of the
universally admired masterpieces
of the world's heritage".



Classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting,
literature (kaavya), music and dancing evolved
their own rules conditioned by their respective
media, but they shared with one another not only
the underlying beliefs but also the procedures by
which the relationship of the symbols and the
spiritual states were worked out in detail.