The influence of 16th century art on Chinese printmaking

1. Make use of the natural color of the object as much as possible to show the smell of wood (woodcut).

2. Skillfully use the technique of "leaving black" to make special treatment of the depicted shapes to obtain the unique artistic effect of printmaking.

3. Give full play to the characteristics of the engraving watermark, so that the large block of engraving produces a strong artistic effect.

4. Through clever composition, different styles such as fullness, density, and simplicity are used to set off the expression of the theme.

To sum up, ancient Chinese printmaking has its own development trajectory in the long history and has formed a unique art.

Mr. Zheng Zhenduo once said: "Pear and jujube paintings, in order to promote culture, the merit is indescribable", which is an appropriate description of the status of printmaking art.

Printmaking has the function of visual aesthetics, flat modeling and pure art. Printmaking has the indirectness of the process of artistic expression, the plurality of artistic results, and the aesthetic characteristics of imprint art.

The Ming and Qing dynasties were the peak period of Chinese printmaking, and with the joint efforts of many literati, booksellers, and engravers, various genres of engraving appeared, and a large number of excellent works were created, showing a thriving situation. Not only did religious prints reach their peak in the Ming Dynasty, but appreciative prints also flourished in the Ming Dynasty. Paintings, **, operas, biographies, poems, etc., are as good as snow for a while, and the list goes on.

In particular, the engraved illustrations of literary masterpieces have many editions, are widely popular and have far-reaching influence.

This period was also the period of the flourishing of various artistic schools of printmaking. The Jian'an school centered on Jianyang, Fujian, the works are mostly from folk craftsmen, and the engraving is simple. The Jinling School, centered in Nanjing, is dominated by opera.

Or rough and bold, or elegant and beautiful, with different styles. The Wuling School, centered in Hangzhou, has an open theme and exquisite carving. The Hui school, centered in Huizhou, Anhui Province, has a long-standing influence and a pivotal position in the history of Chinese culture.

At the end of the 19th century, the representative painters of the transitional period were mainly Casagente and Vrubel. Casagent represents the transition from itinerant critical realism to neorealism after the October Socialist Revolution, while Vrubel represents another artistic tendency, the transition from critical realism to 20th-century modernist art.

At the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, a splendid realist painting appeared in Italy, which inherited the distinct secularization spirit expressed in the works of the Renaissance masters and developed in the constant struggle with Mannerism and Baroque art. Its main founder and disseminator was Caravaggio, hence the name Caravaggioism. Caravaggioism influenced the whole of Europe and pushed realist art to a new stage.