PortraitPaintinginChinavs.Europe

(Medieval to Renaissance) In modern times, it is often thought that European painting is more realistic and Chinese painting is more pictorial, but for a long time in history, the two developed in opposite directions. The peak of realism in Chinese painting came in the 9th-11th centuries, when the Chinese gained a great deal of experience with line drawing in a large number of artistic creations, and therefore paintings of animals and people were very realistic compared to other civilizations at this time. Europe, meanwhile, was in the darkness of the Middle Ages, with religion dominating all art. The realistic painting techniques of the Roman period were suppressed in favor of a more abstract painting style that specialized in theological narratives. As a result, most of the portraits of the time were dismal, and the ones I found in the picture were already at a high level of European painting at the time. After the 12th century, after the wars between the Mongols and the Jurchen（Jin）, the development of art and technology in China fell into silence. The massacres led to the burning of a large number of valuable paintings and calligraphy, which also led to the killing of high-level painters and the lack of successors, and then failed to develop light and shadow and a systematic perspective, and no longer focus on realism. The situation continued to grow until the late 14th century, when the Han rebels restored Han rule, and the Chinese called this style "literati painting". The opposite was true in Europe,Beginning in the 14th century, Europeans embarked on the Renaissance movement and unearthed previously realistic techniques. These techniques did not disappear due to the oppression of the Church, but rather developed significantly during the Renaissance. The development of anatomy and geometry gave the Europeans a solid foundation in painting the human body and space. This also led to a huge gap between Chinese and European painting.