Inside-painted Art
01 · Historical Records
Lu-school inner painting began during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. In the 1950s, the veteran artist Xue Jingwan invented the baked-color inner-painted snuff bottle and the inner-painting brush, pushing inner-painting techniques to a new stage.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lu-school inner painting uses a specially made curved inner-painting brush, inserted into a bottle whose mouth is as small as a bean, to paint in reverse. It introduces techniques of Chinese painting such as cun, ca, ran, dian, gou, and si into inner painting, hand-painting pictures of the utmost detail. It is especially adept at line drawing, with smooth and slender lines, rich compositions, an elegant style, and exquisite brushwork. Lu-school inner painting emphasizes 'inner calligraphy', matching poetry and pictures so that poetic sentiment and pictorial charm blend together. The long-standing Qi-Lu culture has provided rich creative subjects for Lu-school inner painting and has also shaped its rough, bold, and uninhibited style. The content of Lu-school inner painting includes figures (historical figures, modern figures, historical stories), landscapes (traditional landscapes, famous scenic spots and historical sites, pavilions and towers), flowers and birds, and portraits. It mostly draws on historical allusions, myths and legends, and traditional subjects, and excels at 'hundred' themed works such as Hundred Tigers, Hundred Steeds, and Hundred Beasts — rough and heroic in manner, with a bold and spirited style and rich distinctiveness. At that time, the Beijing inner-painted snuff bottle technique spread to Zibo, where the painter Bi Rongjiu used locally produced high-grade liuli (colored-glaze) crystal material to make bottle bodies and began producing liuli inner-painted snuff bottles; he invented the technique of sanding the inner wall of inner-painting bottles. During the same period, the painters Sun Tanpu and Xue Xiangdu devoted themselves to study and mastered the inner-painting technique; from this point on, Lu-school inner painting came into being. Lu-school inner painting moves the techniques of Chinese painting such as cun, ca, ran, dian, gou, and si into the bottle; it excels at using slender, smooth lines to shape the drapery patterns of figures and the texture strokes of mountains and rocks, and pays attention to the writing of inscriptions and poems — the so-called 'inner calligraphy' — which, matched with the picture, produces a blending of poetry and painting. The pigments used are treated with baked color so that they adhere to the bottle wall, and their colors do not fade for a long time.
The bent inner-painting brush and reverse painting
The core skill of Lu-school inner painting: a bent brush is inserted through the tiny bottle mouth and worked in reverse against the inner wall.
Fired-colour snuff bottles and inner-painting brushes
In the 1950s the veteran craftsman Xue Jingwan devised fired-colour snuff bottles and the inner-painting brush, fixing the pigments to the bottle wall.
Crystal-glass blanks and frosted inner walls
When Beijing inner painting reached Zibo, Bi Rongjiu used local crystal glass for the blanks and invented the frosting of the bottle's inner wall.
Sets of a hundred tigers, horses and beasts
Lu-school painters favour 'hundred' subjects, filling a bottle face or a set of bottles with a hundred distinct tigers, horses or beasts.
The four schools of Chinese inner painting
The Lu school, native to Zibo in Shandong, is one of the four great schools of Chinese inner painting alongside the Beijing, Hebei and Guangdong schools.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Lu-school inner painting is a technique of painting on the inner wall of snuff bottles that originated and is transmitted in Zibo City, Shandong Province; together with the Jing, Ji, and Yue schools of inner painting, it is known as one of the four great schools of Chinese inner painting. The carriers of Lu-school inner painting are mostly locally produced liuli body materials; bottles are made of liuli crystal material in various vessel shapes, with diverse and novel forms. After years of development, Lu-school inner painting has become a school of its own and a representative art-glass (meishu liuli) artwork of the local area, praised with the lines: 'truly vast is the universe within the sleeve; fully contained are the sun and moon within the bottle'. Lu-school inner painting, together with the Jing, Ji, and Yue schools, is known as one of the four great schools of Chinese inner painting. Its carriers are mostly liuli crystal bottle bodies fired in the Boshan area of Zibo. The mouth of the bottle is as small as a bean; the painter must bend the brush shaft into an arc, insert the specially made inner-painting brush into the belly of the bottle, and place strokes in reverse on the inner wall, so that the picture appears upright only when the viewer looks from the outside. The brushwork relies entirely on feel and experience, and a single mis-stroke is difficult to correct.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hengshui Inside-painted Art · Inside-painted Art · Inside-painted Art.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lu-school inner painting relies mainly on family and master-apprentice transmission. Through measures such as establishing transmission venues and practice bases, a systematic transmission and protection system has been built locally, and the viability of Lu-school inner painting has continuously increased. Lu-school inner painting reflects the inner-painting craft techniques and market demand of different periods, and has precious historical and cultural value. Its rough and heroic style gathers the cultural features and aesthetic characteristics of Qi-Lu culture, full of artistic charm and value for appreciation. Combined with arts such as painting and liuli firing, it highlights aesthetic interest and aesthetic concepts, and has considerable socio-cultural value. The transmission of Lu-school inner painting is based mainly on family and master-apprentice relationships. Its protecting unit, the Zhang Guangqing Inner Painting Art Research Institute, recruits students on a long-term basis and runs practice bases, enabling the skill to continue. Its style is rough and heroic, its subjects often drawn from historical allusions, myths and legends, and the scenery and products of Qi-Lu; and it excels at 'hundred-theme' series paintings such as 'Hundred Tigers', 'Hundred Steeds', and 'Hundred Beasts'.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Xisan 01-0065
- Liu Shouben 03-1222
- Yang Zhigang
- Zhang Guangqing
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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