| During this period, Chinese painting matured and entered a stage of full development. Figure painters advocated "appearance as a vehicle conveying the spirit", emphasizing the internal spiritual quality of paintings. Landscape painting was divided into two major schools: the blue-and-green and the ink-and-wash styles. Various skills of expression were created for flower-and-bird paintings such as realistic meticulous painting with color,ink-and-wash painting with light color and boneless ink-wash painting. The Imperial Art Academy flourished during the northern and southern Song dynasties.The southern Song witnessed a trend of simple and bold strokes in landscape paintings. Literati ink-and-wash painting became a unique style developing outside the Academy, which stressed free expression of artists' personality. |
