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Paintings of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368)
In the Yuan Dynasty, the whole China was under the rule of foreign conquerors, the Mongols. Many artists were resistant to the Mongol invasion and they tried to withdraw from public lives. They then turned to the pursuit of their own personal or artistic cultivation. Many of them devoted to landscape painting. However, they did not take truth to nature as their purpose was to make it a vehicle for self expression.
Generally speaking, literati painting was the mainstream in the Yuan Dynasty and most of the paintings represented the living environment, taste and ideals of the time. Many paintings were featuring landscape, withered wood, bamboo, stone, plum and orchid. On the other hand, figure paintings that directly depicted social life reduced. Most of the works in the Yuan Dynasty emphasized the literariness and calligraphic flavour, and particular emphasis was paid on the integration of poem, calligraphy and painting. In terms of creative thoughts, the artists in the Yuan Dynasty sought simplicity and freedom in painting, highlighting the natural outflow of subjective emotion.
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