When China was opened again to the West in the last century her rich tradition of painting, with its subtle harmonies of shape and colour, its impressionistic use of light and atmosphere, came as a revelation to the artistic world. Even now few Europeans are aware of the full range of this unique achievement, in a development spanning more than two thousand years, from the restrained and meditative paintings of the Zen monks to the passionate and unconstrained work of the eight painters known as Fauves of Yangchow; form the courtly portraits of noblemen and courtesans to the delicate landscapes of Wen Cheng-ming, a contemporary of Leonardo and his equal in stature.
Each step along this road of achievement, the first beginnings known to us only from literary sources, the conditions and influences which created the distinctive schools, the materials and techniques used, the interrelationschip of Japanese and Chinese painting, is explained in the introductory text. The plates themselves vividly illustrate the different subjects - landscapes, portraits, flowers, birds, or narrative scroll painting - and the techniques - indian ink with its subtle gradations of colour, stipple painting, woodcuts, gleaming screens in gold and blue - chosen by individual masters, whose lives and work are detailed in the commentaries to the plates. This volume provides not only a rich collection of great works but also a source of future pleasure in the fuller appreciation of all Far-Eastern art.