Roger Barnard
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Six principles of Chinese painting

11/11/2016

2 Comments

 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

​The Six principles of Chinese painting were established by Xie He (also known as Hsieh Ho), a writer, art historian and critic in 6th century China. He is most famous for his "Six points to consider when judging a painting" (繪畫六法, Pinyin:Huìhuà Liùfǎ), taken from the preface to his book "The Record of the Classification of Old Painters" (古畫品錄; Pinyin: Gǔhuà Pǐnlù). This was written circa 550 and refers to "old" and "ancient" practices. The six elements that define a painting are:
  1. "Spirit Resonance," or vitality, and seems to translate to the nervous energy transmitted from the artist into the work. The overall energy of a work of art. Xie He said that without Spirit Resonance, there was no need to look further.
  2. "Bone Method," or the way of using the brush. This refers not only to texture and brush stroke, but to the close link between handwriting and personality. In his day, the art of calligraphy was inseparable from painting.
  3. "Correspondence to the Object," or the depicting of form, which would include shape and line.
  4. "Suitability to Type," or the application of color, including layers, value and tone.
  5. "Division and Planning," or placing and arrangement, corresponding to composition, space and depth.
  6. "Transmission by Copying," or the copying of models, not only from life but also the works of antiquity.
2 Comments
Lhynzie link
15/1/2022 09:50:48 am

That was an excellent piece. Thank you for sharing this information about Chinese art paintings.. This is quite interesting. I was really amazed while reading your article. Kudos!

Reply
Roger Barnard
17/1/2022 12:02:02 am

Dear Lhynzie,

Thanks for the kind comment. I agree it's a very good article, but I hope I made it clear that I didn't write it - I simply copied and pasted it from Wikipedia.Those six points may have been made in the 6th century, but they are still absolutely relevant to any kind of painting today. Thanks for looking at my blog! Best wishes, Roger

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