Can’t appreciate the craftsmanship of jadeite? Just remember these 3 rules

Jade carvings are the product of oriental aesthetics, but many people today do not know how to appreciate the beauty of jade carvings, mainly because their traditional aesthetic literacy is insufficient.

In fact, various principles of oriental art can also be found in jade, such as the emphasis on the beauty of curves in traditional Chinese art, the emphasis on the strength and elasticity of lines, the emphasis on the square in the circle, the circle in the square, and the combination of hardness and softness. When appreciating jade carvings, we can start with the form of "using lines" and remember these three rules:

Square to Circle

"Replacing circle with square" is a typical rule of line usage in traditional Chinese decorative art. It uses straight lines as contrasting factors to create a square with a circle, or a straight line with a curve, forming a contrast and harmonious beauty of hardness and softness.

The bronze patterns of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the stone carvings, jade and lacquerware of the Han and Wei dynasties all clearly show the linear characteristics of squareness with roundness, and a combination of hardness and softness.

S-curve

As the name suggests, curves that resemble an "S" shape, or various curves derived from an "S" shape, are widely used in the design and modeling of jade handicrafts. Ancient Chinese arts and crafts, such as the Tai Chi diagram, are based on the "S" curve, which divides the circle into two centrally symmetrical and balanced parts, one black and one white, and divides the circle into repeated positive and negative shapes. Such a simple shape contains rich contrast and unity.

In traditional Chinese jade artifacts, the rhythm of S-shaped lines is widely infiltrated in the overall shape, local form, or surface decoration. For example, in some dragon and phoenix jade plaques, the shape and combination of the dragon and the phoenix invisibly display the S-curve. This way of using S-shaped curves is conducive to highlighting the natural beauty of the texture of the jade material.

Long dynamic line

From the perspective of traditional decorative line rules, the use of long dynamic lines, wavy lines and arcs can easily produce decorative effects. In art, dynamic lines are auxiliary lines that express the dynamic direction of the human body (or animal) in action. The lines are few and concise, with a high degree of generalization. The most vivid embodiment of long dynamic lines is the long robes, long sleeves, wide sleeves, long ribbons, etc. in ancient Chinese clothing. These clothes show the curves and dynamic beauty of the human body.

The organization of dynamic lines is also reflected in the shape of flowers and birds, such as the interlacing of branches, the stretching of flowers and leaves in the wind, and the flying and jumping of birds. In terms of landscape modeling, such as the staggered arrangement of trees of different heights, the crisscrossing and winding flow of water, the origin and development of the mountains, and the folds and tilting directions of the rocks, changing line rhythms are often used to express these.

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