Chinese seal cutting art
| Chinese seal cutting art | |
|---|---|
Intangible cultural heritage 
|
|
|
|
| Seal cutter |
|
| Country: |
 People's Republic of China
|
| List: | Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
| Number: | 00217 |
| Admission: | 2009 |
The Chinese art of seal cutting (Chinese 金石 篆刻 jīnshí zhuànkè ) was included in the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009 . Once the use of a seal was reserved for powerful people, it soon spread to all social groups. Today seals are common in various countries in Southeast Asia.
Connection with painting and calligraphy
The manufacture of stamp seals is closely related to various disciplines of Chinese art . Chinese painting is often supplemented with calligraphic verses in which the painter expresses his feelings - and with an imprint of his personal seal as a signature. Since the Ming Dynasty , stamp seals have been viewed as aesthetic objects and seal carving as a form of calligraphy and a field of activity for the scholar.
The most important center of the art of seal cutting in China is the Xiling Seal Society, founded in 1904 on West Lake in Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province). Its first president was the eminent painter, calligrapher and seal cutter Wu Changshuo .
Material, technology, characters and motifs
Since the Yuan Dynasty was Seifenstein the most popular material for seal carving, where there are three favorite ways: Qingtian- and Yanhua stone from the province of Zhejiang and Shoushan stone from the province of Fujian . The stone seal itself can become a work of art and collector's item.
The seal cutter's workplace is equipped as follows: It requires a dictionary of the characters, a selection of carving knives (chisels), a clamping device and a mirror. First, a template for the stamp motif is made on paper, and then mirror-inverted in stone with a chisel. The seal cutter must be skilled in traditional calligraphy , but a lot of virtuosity is also required of him, because he works on a small seal plate, so that every twist, every width of the line must be carefully set. During the working process, test impressions are made to check the result; the motif on the sealing plate is also checked in the mirror.
For the characters on seals, the ancient seal script (zhuànshū) is mostly used. Either the sign is scratched into the sealing plate with the knife, then it appears on the imprint in white against a red background ("Yin form"), or it remains standing and the seal cutter works off the rest of the sealing plate: then it appears in red white background ("yang shape"). There is a wide range of motifs from which the artist can choose. Names, verses, but also pictorial motifs are possible.
Although fewer people can read the Zhuanshu characters on seals today than in the past, the art of seal cutting is still practiced both professionally and by amateurs.
See also
- National Chinese Seal Museum in Hangzhou
literature
- Lingyu Feng, Weimin Shi: Outline of Chinese Culture . 2001, ISBN 7-80113-817-1 .
- Michael Dillon: China: A Cultural and Historical Dictionary . Routledge, 2013, ISBN 0-7007-0438-8 .
- Weizu Sun: Chinese Seals: Carving Authority and Creating History . San Francisco 2004, ISBN 1-59265-013-9 .
Web links
- Chinese seal cutting art on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section website ( English and French ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lingyu Feng, Weimin Shi: Outline of Chinese Culture . S. 126 .
- ↑ a b c d Michael Dillon: China . S. 273 .
- ↑ Wu Changshuo (1844-1927). Retrieved June 7, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Jie Sheng: The art of Chinese seal engraving. Retrieved June 14, 2018 .