originated from snuff bottle painting, inner painting is a unique traditional craft inchina. it is manually painted with a specially shaped brush inside the bottle made of glass, crystal or amber and is characterized by fineness of detail, preciseness of painting brush and elegant style. it is said that during the reigns of emperor jiaqing and emperor daoguang, a junior official was summoned to beijing for work report. while he boarded in a temple, he found that his snuff bottle would be empty soon and scraped what was left in the bottle with a stick. a monk in the temple found that the scratches inside the bottle resembled the lines in traditional chinese painting, and developed it into the art of inside painting of snuff bottles. however, based on experts’ research, the inventor of inside painting bottles was a young artist in southernchinaduring the reign of emperor jiaqing in the qing dynasty rather than monk. the artist poured little steel pebbles, quartz sand and a small amount of water into the bottle for fine scratches of the inner surface, which helped paint to adhere easily. then he dipped a crooked bamboo painting brush into the color and painted in an inverted direction on the inner surface of the bottle. the name of the painter was gan huanwen. his earliest inside painting bottle was completed in 1816, and he was said to have retired in 1860. there are mainly four schools of inside painting art, namely beijing, hebei, shandong and guangdong, among which hebei school features the highest proficiency, largest scale, fastest development and strongest influence, hence earning its position in the list of national intangible cultural heritages since recently. hengshui, hebei province is the cradle of hebei school of inside painting and is recognized as hometown of inside painting inchinaby the ministry of culture. in the 16th year of emperor guangxu’s reign in the qing dynasty, the skill of snuff bottle inside painting was brought to “hometown of colored glaze” boshan, shandong province, where a painter named bi rongjiu used locally produced high-quality colored glaze material as the base of snuff bottles and started to make snuff bottles with glazed inside painting, hence recognized as the founding father of boshan inside painting art and one of the most renowned artists in the chinese history of inside painting. in 1956, artists xue jingwan and zhang wentang, both advanced in age, recruited apprentices in boshan fine art colored glaze factory to teach the skills of inside painting, resuming the production of inner painting products. in 1958, artist xue jingwan invented inside painting brush and waterproof baked color inside painting snuff box. the invention of inside painting brush was a key milestone in the history of inside painting. compared with traditional bamboo brush, the inside painting brush proves its advantages in easiness of use and suitability for both writing and painting, hence significantly enriched the expressiveness of inside painting and enhanced the efficiency. on this basis, inside painting artists most of these works feature traditional themes such as historical legends, anecdotes and tales, portraying grand scenes and numerous characters, fullness in arrangement, distinct layers, exquisiteness tinged with rich subtleties as well as lively figures, true-to-life animals and distinctive styles and techniques that form a characteristic style of inside painting known as school of lu of shandong among collectors, enthusiasts and international snuff bottle association. through decades of constant exploration and unswerving efforts of generations of inside painting artists, shandong school of inside painting is prospering with a constellation of talents with their individual styles, including national arts & crafts masters li kechang, wang xiaocheng, wang guangming, qu ketao, liu hui and zhang guangzhong as well as numerous provincial arts & crafts masters, whose works enjoyed international reputation and were highly valued by collectors. a good harvest of awards in recent years including gold awards, silver award, baihua awards and excellence awards in major exhibitions and contests inchinaand overseas has further highlighted the status of inside painting in chinese arts & crafts. in the past few years, many new faces have appeared in the field of inside painting, whose inheritance of traditions as well as innovation and renovation have enabled constant development of mainstream inside painting known for its meticulousness, rigorousness, fineness of details and easily comprehensible form of expression. meanwhile, new concepts have emerged as inside painting master liu yizi first proposed the concept of new inside painting during heibei inside painting seminar in 1994. “new inside painting” highlights the artistic expression of inside painting as it breaks free from the folk “craftsmen” traditions by interpreting inside painting in modern art language and constantly seeking innovations, a breakthrough from the repetition and vulgarization tendency with a free, innovative mind. |