Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival Zhang Zeduan

In contrast, the tradition of ink wash painting, practiced mainly by scholar-officials and court
painters especially of landscapes, flowers, and birds, developed aesthetic values depending on the
individual imagination of and objective observation by the artist that are similar to those of the
West, but long pre-dated their development there.

Noble Ladies in Tang Dynasty Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang

Chinese art has arguably the oldest continuous

tradition in the world, and is marked by an unusual degree of continuity within, and consciousness of, that tradition, lacking an equivalent to the
Western collapse and gradual recovery of classical
styles. Much of the best work in ceramics, textiles
and other techniques was produced over a long
period by the various Imperial factories or workshops, which as well as being used by the court
was distributed internally and abroad on a huge
scale to demonstrate the wealth and power of the
Emperors. Traditional Chinese painting involves
essentially the same techniques as Chinese calligraphy and is done with a brush dipped in black or
colored ink; oils are not used. As with calligraphy,
the most popular materials on which paintings
are made of paper and silk. The finished work can
be mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or
handscrolls.

Five Oxen Han Huang

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Katsushika Hokusai

Chinese
Art