Beauty of Flowers and Paintings 《赏花说园》

 I am reading a Chinese book titled 'Appreciation and Talk of Flowers and Gardens' 《赏花说园》. A very interesting book. The authors (more than two) do not talk much about paintings but what they talk about the beauty of flowers is very much analogous to the beauty of paintings, especially traditional Chinese flower paintings.

The first three chapters talk about Beauty of Flowers from an aesthetic point of view quite logically. The book explains

Colors, Scents, Shapes and Feelings of Flowers.

Paintings do not emit scent while Paintings do have colors, shapes and feelings of the things painted. Especially flower paintings strongly relate with these colors, shapes and feelings as the painted objects are flowers. One importnt thing of the beauty of flower paitings is composition. Professional viewers of flower paintings may regard composition as the most important factor. The book talks about composition more on <gardens>.

AAG

China Top10 Flowers

 

Chinese people have "China Top10 Flowers", result of the objective contest by numbers like an election. In order by popularity.

1. Plum Blossom

2. Peony

3.  Chrysanthemum

4. Orchid

5. Chinese Rose (smaller than western cultivated large ones)

6 Rhododendron 

7. Camellia

8. Lotus

9. Osmanthus

10. Narcissus (Daffodil)

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1. Plum Blossom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2. Peony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a typical work of my Chinese painting teacher. Complicated bit it did not take so long time to complete,. I guess about one  hour. There may be billions of Peony paintings  in China with a calligraphy expressing affluence  and wealth.

 

3.  Chrysanthemum

 

 

4. Orchid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 5. Chinese Rose 

 

This is common rose not Chinese Rose but similar.

6 Rhododendron

7. Camellia

8. Lotus

 

9. Osmanthus

 

10. Narcissus (Daffodil)

 

Chinese people have some fixed idea for each flower due to there long history (more than 2,000 years), popular culture, literature (especially poetry) . This is deeply rooted in them so they do not see these flower 100% objectively.

 

No. 1 Plum blossom has very small flowers. Pleas recall Taiwan National flower is Plum Blossom. China Airline. Taiwan is located in the subtropical climate so Plum Blossom is not commonly seen. This is symbol and it works as a symbol.

No.  2. Peony is the mainland China National flower.

AAG