A small dictionary of Chinese art
Useful words for looking, reading and finding your way through a museum catalogue.
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- Handscrollshǒujuàn · 手卷
- A horizontal scroll opened in sections from right to left. [1]
- Colophontíbá · 题跋
- Writing associated with a work, often added after it. Its author may be a later viewer. [1]
- Seal impressionyìnjì · 印记
- A stamped mark that may belong to an artist, collector or viewer; not every seal is the artist’s. [1]
- Calligraphyshūfǎ · 书法
- Writing practiced as an art; meaning and the form of the characters both matter. [2]
- Running scriptxíngshū · 行书
- A script with more flowing, abbreviated forms than standard script. [2]
- Standard scriptkǎishū · 楷书
- A script in which individual strokes are distinctly articulated. [2]
- Landscape paintingshānshuǐ huà · 山水画
- Painting of mountains and water that can express ideas as well as describe places. [3]
- Literati paintingwénrén huà · 文人画
- A tradition associated with learned painters and the connected arts of poetry, calligraphy and painting. [3]