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For Teachers

"For Teachers" includes two slightly different instruction approaches. One uses visual cues from three Yuan paintings to introduce the features of balance, rhythm, and focus in art of the period. The other involves suggested classes, complete with instructions, text, illustrations, and suggested questions and reading for further in-depth study of three other patintings and their relation to works and features of Mongol Yuan art.

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    Portraiture

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    This section focuses on imperial portraits of the Yuan dynasty and introduces different forms of court-produced imperial portraits. Comparison with imperial portraits of the previous Song dynasty also highlights the salient features of those from the Mongol Yuan.

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    Architecture

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    Mongol rule in the Yuan dynasty meant that China was no longer under the exclusive domain of native Chinese culture, providing the opportunity for the promotion of alternative tastes. In art, not only were new techniques imported from other ethnic groups and areas.

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    Revivalism

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    Connoisseurs also frequently discuss paintings with respect to a particular painter or school of the past. So why did painters use styles of the ancient masters and how did they do so? How are viewers supposed to know? This section takes Zhao Mengfu's "Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains" as an example of this salient aspect of Chinese painting.

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    Balance

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    Based on Wu Zhen's "Bamboo and Rock". What can the painter add to the blank areas of the surface to add more balance?

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    Focus

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    Based on "Kublai Khan Hunting". This result is a stage that has been set for Kublai Khan.

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    Rhythm

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    Based on Ni Zan's "Riverside Pavilion by Mountains". A visual effect of alternating forms left and right winding through the composition from front to back is created.