Visual Culture- The Medieval World

China

Calligraphy

Chinese Calligraphy started in around 220BC and has developed into its own art from over the years. The most traditional way of creating Calligraphy is using a brush and ink on wood, silk or paper and it is created with fast brush strokes. Calligraphy started to elevate into an art form which was practiced by many people of the Chinese culture to become professional calligraphers.  The art of Calligraphy is more complicated than you expect. It takes time to learn the particular brush strokes in which you need to create the perfect Calligraphy. There are Calligraphy classes in China where people practice the art. As shown in the clip below. 

Chinese Calligraphy, Stephen Little. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1987. JSTOR

This clip demonstrates Chinese culture of Calligraphy and both spiritual and martial arts.

Printing

Woodblock printing was invented in China and the earliest known examples of it dates back to 868 when the oldest printed book, the Diamond Sutra, was created. Woodblock printing was overlooked by Chinese Literature1 but then later spread throughout China and was used to print books and pages of text and images. Also in later stages printing was done using a press as to being printed by hand. Between 1041 and 1048 movable type was also invented in China, this is where the characters were able to be moved around to create a variety of sentences and phrases. This technique was used to print banknotes and as the art of printing developed a mechanical press was produced by Johannes Gutenberg and this led on to the printing and binding of books and the first mass production. Printing is considered to be a cheap and excellent form of creating propaganda posters etc. Also due to printing education and Literacy expanded throughout Europe.

Small stamped images of the Buddha; one of the ways
that woodblock printing began. 2

Rubbing from a carved stone slab. 3

A woodblock carved with four pages of text. 4

[1] Frances Wood and Mark Barnard. The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book p. 63
[2] Frances Wood and Mark Barnard. The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book p. 65
[3] Frances Wood and Mark Barnard. The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book p. 69
[4] Frances Wood and Mark Barnard. The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book p. 71