1. Layout of the blue-and-white fish algae diagram (1) Decorative utensils of the fish algae diagram-pots and plates
The shapes of blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty are rich and varied. Nowadays, fish and algae pictures are mainly decorated with pots and plates. There are four layouts on the tank, which are divided into two, three, four and five floors, and the fish and algae figures are all decorated in the protruding abdomen. The five-layer layout is as follows: the neck is painted with wavy patterns, and the shoulders are painted with branch peony or lotus patterns. Gaskin painted a variation of lotus petals (occasionally wavy), and the upper layer of lotus petals is generally a scroll or brocade pattern. The decoration is only divided into two layers: the neck is wavy and the rest of the tank is decorated with fish and algae. In addition to fish algae, there are only three styles of this layout on blue and white cans in Yuan Dynasty: Yunlong pattern, Peacock Peony pattern and Lianchi Waterbird pattern. The layout of a big market is generally divided into three layers, with brocade or wavy lines painted on the hem and peony or lotus lines painted on the inner wall. Up to now, only the fish-algae-tutu tank from the Philippine waters has a lotus leaf-shaped cover with lotus leaf veins painted on it. However, fish and algae were painted on the fragments of the pot cover unearthed from Jingdezhen kiln site in the Yuan Dynasty (Figure 1, collected by Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology). It can be inferred from the local morphological characteristics that the complete cover should be densely covered with fish and algae, which is consistent with the painting style on the tank.
(2) Layout characteristics-horizontal form, strip scenery.
The decoration of the fish and algae pot is divided into four or five layers, and the visual effect is stable and open. The aspect ratio of the two-story layout is intuitively about 1.4: 1, as shown in Figure 4 (Shining Art Collection of Japan), but the tank shoulder and gaskin are bent inward, and the fish and algae diagram on the whole tank still has a horizontally stable visual effect. Then, when composing a composition, the seaweed extends down to the bottom of the tibia, and the stems of lotus leaves extend up to the shoulders, filling up the upper and lower spaces, giving people a realm of deep water and fish, and the wind is more fragrant. The edge decoration of the fish algae picture sets off the central theme, and the swimming posture of the fish in the picture is in a specific stable state.
Figure 2
Figure 4
So far, the fish and algae pictures have not been found in tall and straight plum bottles, jade pots and springs, but in pots and plates with low center of gravity, so as to achieve a horizontal and stable coordination effect, which also shows the ingenuity of designers.
Second, the artistic characteristics of the blue-and-white fish algae map (1) composition-block balance, symmetry is appropriate.
Figure 5
Generally, four fish (there are also five fish, two of which are stacked on top of the other) are divided into two groups, and two fish swim in a group. You can see a set of pictures from one angle. The four kinds of fish in the two groups are different, including mandarin fish, crucian carp, mackerel and bream. Swimming fish are located at the largest belly diameter of the tank, most of them swim horizontally, or slightly up and down, and some of them wag their tails to look back, look around and call each other, all of which maintain a horizontal posture. Lotus, lotus leaf, lotus room, aquatic plants, duckweed and other landscape paintings. The scenery is evenly distributed and does not overlap and cover each other. For example, the stems of lotus leaves are on the rise, and the ribbon-shaped aquatic plants drift from bottom to top and then from left to right, arranged neatly and orderly. Curved opposite short-whisker aquatic plants are all drawn with curves, without smearing color blocks, and strip-shaped aquatic plants are inserted between them, and then the space is filled with duckweeds of all sizes. However, there are also a few fish tails and hidden layers of aquatic plants (see Figure 3), which adds to the fun of fish's shuttle play. The picture of a group of two fish on the tank (Figure 5, Fuji Art Collection, Tokyo, Japan) is roughly symmetrical. Umbrella-shaped lotus leaves and lotus houses are located on the axis of symmetry, ribbon-shaped aquatic plants are symmetrical left and right, and crucian carp and mandarin fish are similar in shape. Another group of pictures of this tank (Figure 6) is very similar to the above picture, and bream and crucian carp are very similar, but bream and mandarin fish are very different, and the flowers, leaves and duckweed of the two groups are slightly different. This kind of decorative painting is generally symmetrical, slightly different, neat and bright, with tonal changes between rhythms.
The fish and algae painting on the plate is a circular decorative painting. The fish in the single fish picture are all in the middle, and most of them swim horizontally to the left. In the figure, the aquatic plants are mainly composed in approximate symmetry, and the floating strip-shaped aquatic plants are symmetrical trumpet-shaped, with up-and-down folding and back-and-forth folding, as shown in Figure 7 (Japanese Light Art Collection). In Shuang Yutu, there are two types of swimming, namely, horizontal swimming with fish covered in front and back and horizontal swimming in the opposite direction (Figure 8, Hunan Provincial Museum).
Pisces swims flat on the plate, gentle waves; Comparison of vertical and horizontal composition of slender stems of lotus leaves.
Looking at the overall layout of the fish algae map, first of all, it is paved with points (scattered duckweed and duckweed), lines (stems of flowers and leaves are regarded as thin lines, while aquatic plants are thick lines) and surfaces (color blocks of different sizes of fish, flowers and leaves). Secondly, in the plane space without depth of field, the shape of the scene is roughly symmetrical, with local jagged and interspersed. Thirdly, the swimming fish (main body) is in a horizontal state, the embedded grass floats vertically, and the picture and shape are coordinated to achieve a stable and balanced decorative effect.
(2) Image-accurate and lifelike, natural and vivid.
1. Typical characteristics of accuracy. Many kinds of fish such as mandarin fish, crucian carp and mandarin fish depicted in the fish algae map have distinct characteristics. For example, anchovy's head is very small, flat and almost diamond-shaped, anchovy's body is round and long, and the giant silver carp is upturned. In particular, Siniperca chuatsi, as shown in Figure 7, has a huge mouth, a pointed mouth, prickly fins, a tail fan and spotted scales. The head accounts for one-third of the body length, and the second spiny fin on the dorsal fin is the longest, which gradually becomes shorter below, with spiny teeth on the upper and lower lips; The eye point is at the lower end of the eyeball, as if observing the situation, which is very vivid. These accurate, delicate and vivid paintings are difficult to describe without careful observation and sketching. The lotus flowers and lotus leaves on the fish algae diagram are also different from the common lotus pond mandarin duck patterns. Blooming flowers and rolled leaf covers are natural (see Figure 3).
Figure 9
2. Vivid posture in the water. None of the fish and algae pictures depict water, but all the fish and flowers have the feeling of swimming and floating in the water waves. As shown in Figure 2, the mandarin fish is slightly lifted, its mouth is open, its front double fins are rowed forward, and then it is swung backward, indicating that it is fighting for the upper reaches; Turn your eyes to the upper left and try to echo your partner in front. The fish on the left turned over from the grass and swam to the right. The front double fins are open to meet him from left to right, and the round eyes look down at the mandarin fish at the lower right. As shown in Figure 9 (Hunan Restaurant), Pisces is high and low, moving and quiet. If quiet people have fun, then energetic people will jump into the waves and play with seaweed. The above two pictures show that fish don't know the fun of water storms. In addition, it also shows vivid dynamics by depicting the subtle changes on the surface of fish. For example, draw fish scales such as mackerel and crucian carp with oblique grid, and adjust the size and density of the grid at the turning point of the tail to show the swimming posture of wagging the tail (see Figure 3). Similarly, several aquatic plants are generalized and deformed on the basis of natural ecology, which has both the sense of realism in water and the sense of order and rhythm of decoration.
(3) use a pen-exquisite and flexible.
Yuan blue and white painted decorative patterns are generally smooth and steady. However, the characteristics of the pen for fish and algae diagram are that it focuses on the decorative big picture, and the painting details are put down, which not only has uniform and stable patterns, but also has the lifting and turning side of the patterns. The combination of the two tends to be consistent, and the hairspring is delicate and dense. As shown in fig. 2 and fig. 7, both kinds of mandarin fish draw the outline of the hook image with iron wire, with thin pen and round line. Picturesque spikes on the dorsal fin have a slightly curved straight line, which is hard and sharp. The upper and lower fins near the tail have as many as nine grain lines on the narrow surface, which are arranged in parallel and clearly visible. The material of fish back is rich in color, which gradually fades to the abdomen, leaving white space below the abdomen, then drawing large dots, and finally drawing small dots with dense and small broken dots, with Tibetan front facing down, and small dots with dark and round colors. The mottled spots arranged on the tail lines are formed by oblique points on the front. In the diagram of fish and algae, the fine scales of bream are drawn into a crescent-shaped arc, which is very finely lifted, and this pen change is in harmony with the radian of the scales. The characteristics of landscape pen are also delicate and vivid, such as the curved aquatic plant with opposite filaments in Figure 7, whose main stem is wavy, and the wave band gradually decreases from large to small, with decorative rhythm; The density of filaments changes with the change of waves, showing a natural situation of soft floating in water.
There is also a very free and easy drawing on the fish algae diagram, as shown in Figure 5, which shows the natural shape of lotus leaves dying after autumn. It is completely different from decorative paintings with clear edges and strong sense of blocks. This kind of painting method of integrating freehand brushwork of Chinese painting into decorative painting is also seen in the "Lotus Pond Waterbird Map" in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
(4) Material color-the surface of the block is clear, and the shade changes.
Generally speaking, all shapes on the fish algae diagram are represented by blue and white blocks, and the color changes produced by the pen can be seen carefully. It is embodied in two aspects: first, washing and dyeing color. The images of washing and dyeing include fish, flowers, leaves and lotus houses. For example, the shape of fish shows a round three-dimensional effect through washing and dyeing. Although the description is very detailed and delicate, it is still considered as a color block with two shades on the whole. Another example is a lotus in Figure 2, which is a well-defined color block with rich decoration. The edge of each petal is left blank, and then dyed in different shades. The painting technique shows the natural beauty of the flower. Lotus leaf also has the above decorative and painting characteristics. Although the color block area is large, the rolled-up part and leaf stem are left blank and dyed into light color to divide the large color block, which relieves the feeling of boredom. Second, smear the color block. When the full material color spreads evenly in the outline, the pen is naturally not stiff and there are not many overlapping strokes. The round duckweed shown in the above picture has clear color and distinct tone, while the overlapping pen marks of two small parts are slightly thicker, which just shows the slightly concave color change of duckweed surface. Long floating strip-shaped aquatic plants, each painting, are mostly not heavy. The strips are clear and the colors are distinct. The color of Yuan blue and white is bright and rich, and the deep pigment deposits are pan-black, which has the characteristics of spreading and overflowing. On the picture of fish and algae, the outline of green material is spread out in color, similar to ink spreading on raw rice paper. For example, the dark blue color on the back of mandarin fish has a heavy feeling, and the green dotted with aquatic plants has a rich feeling, which constitute a special ink (material) rhyme in the blue-and-white picture.