| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北藝術大學 === 美術學系碩士班美術史組 === 104 === Flower handscrolls best express the quiet, changing charm of Chinese miniature landscapes. Looking at a flower handscroll is like exploring a garden, as each corner of it provides a different view. As one wanders about and lingers on, the handscroll is ready to unfold more scenery.
In the Qing Dynasty, since the late Qianlong years until the rise of the Shanghai School, the painters of Hangzhou, such as Wang Cheng-pei, Qian Zai, Fang Xun, Chen Hong-chou, Zhai Ji-chang, Dong Qi, Tao Guan, Ren Xiong and Zhou Xian, created a vast number of remarkable flower handscrolls. Their works, however, are rarely the subject of discussions. The poems that they wrote, which describe the beauty of flowers and scenes of flower appreciation, contain ample historical details for researchers to use. Starting with this, this thesis delves into the painters’ thinking and the cultural background of the time, to see how such influenced the making of their flower handscrolls. Just for instance, Tao Guan used to plant flowers and bamboos with family and studied antiques with friends at the Green Plantain Mountain House (Lujiao Shanguan). This study looks at how clips of Tao’s everyday life at the Green Plantain Mountain House are presented in his handscrolls.
The thesis contains four chapters. The first chapter analyzes the types of flower handscrolls of the past dynasties and the historical development of this painting genre. The second chapter discusses the social aura of the time according to literature that recounts flower planting, flower appreciation and people’s love of flowers then. The Album of Happiness (Taiping Huanle Tutse) illustrated a prosperous flower trade of Hangzhou. This chapter also looks at the places where painters of flower handscrolls in the Hangzhou area appreciated flowers in the mid and late Qing Dynasty and the flower proses and poems they wrote, as well as the importance of flowers to the Qing literati. Chapter two studies the flower paintings of the aforementioned nine painters to see how their styles took shape. Chapter three examines the contexts of the flower handscrolls in question and the painting schools they belong to, by four main features, “graceful single branches of flowers,” “fruits and utensils arrangement,” “a view full of the sense of space,” and “a profuse, dazzling picture.” The links between flower handscrolls and the painting of miscellaneous themes and the painting of grass and insects, as well as the seasonal order of flowers, are studied. A small conclusion of the regional characteristics of Hangzhou’s flower handscrolls is made. Chapter four investigates the spirit of Hangzhou’s flower handscrolls in the mid and late Qing Dynasty, while analyzing the content of literati painting with three key terms, the force of life (Sheng-yi), the longing for antiquity (Chong-gu), and “flower recluse (Hua-yin).” Taking Yang Bo-ren and a few other painters as an example, this chapter also tries to understand how the painters of flower handscrolls in Hangzhou passed their skills and artistic thinking down since the rise of the Shanghai School, and why Hangzhou’s flower painting community eventually declined.
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