Hàng Trống painting (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

: Tranh Hàng Trống) is a genre of

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

painting that originated from the area of Hàng Trống ( vi) and Hàng Nón streets in the Old Quarter of

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

, Vietnam. In the past, Hang Trong painting was an essential element of the

Tết Tết (), short for Tết Nguyên Đán ( Chữ Hán: 節元旦), Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, or Vietnamese Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations in Vietnamese culture. The colloquial term "Tết" is a shortened form of ...

holiday in Hanoi, but today this tradition almost has disappeared and authentic Hang Trong paintings are found only in museums or fine art galleries. However, the art of making Hang Trong paintings is always considered a symbol of traditional culture and aesthetic value of Vietnam.

Themes and making

The common themes in Hang Trong paintings are spiritual and cultural symbols such as the white

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

(hổ trắng) or carp (cá chép), which indicate a stronger influence of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

and

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

than in Dong Ho painting. However, besides the pictures of worshipping themes, Hang Trong craftsmen also made paintings with folk themes like Dong Ho such as ''Bịt mắt bắt dê'' (blind-man's buff), ''Rồng rắn'' (following the leader) or ''Thầy đồ Cóc'' (the toad scholar) for the decoration of families during the Tết holiday. The aesthetic value in pictures of Hang Trong painting is more urban than in Dong Ho pictures which are made in the countryside and often reflect a farmer's perspective. Some popular pictures of Hang Trong painting are ''Ngũ hổ'' (''Five Tigers''), ''Lý ngư vọng nguyệt'' (''Carp Looking at the Moon''), ''Tứ bình'' (''Four female musicians'') and ''Tố nữ'' (''Virgin Girl''). In making a Hang Trong painting, the craftsman starts with woodblocks to print black outlines, then draws the details and finally colours the picture in by hand. Because the main part of the process is made by the craftsman's hands, Hang Trong pictures are slightly different from one to another, thus they become more valuable for the fastidious customers in Hanoi. The paper used in making Hang Trong painting is called Xuyến chỉ paper (giấy Xuyến chỉ), which differs from the natural colour paper of Dong Ho painting. Hang Trong craftsmen colourize pictures with

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compou ...

s, and therefore the tone of Hang Trong paintings is usually bright and attractive with principal colours being pink, blue, green, red and yellow.

Gallery

History

The origin of Hang Trong painting dates back to the 16th century during the reign of the Lê dynasty. Different from the countryside Dong Ho, the manufacturing area of Hang Trong painting is located in the Tiêu Túc (later changed to Thuận Mỹ) district in the very heart of

which is now the quarter between Hàng Trống, Hàng Nón, Hàng Hòm and Hàng Quạt streets. This was one of the few places where folk paintings were made in Vietnam during the dynastic time. In the past, Hang Trong craftsmen often began to make pictures in the eleventh and twelfth months of the

Lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, t ...

so that they could meet with the high demand during the

holiday when a Hang Trong painting was indispensable for each Hanoi family. For this reason Hang Trong painting, besides Dong Ho, was also called Tết painting (tranh Tết). Hang Trong craftsmen also produced worshipping pictures for Taoist temples and Buddhist pagodas in Hanoi. Today, the tradition of Hang Trong painting is almost lost. New pictures are rarely produced in Hang Trong anymore because of lack of interest among the younger generations; there remains only one experienced craftsman, Lê Đình Nghiên, who can make Hang Trong paintings. As a result, authentic Hang Trong pictures are found only in museums or fine art gallery. Nevertheless, there are several efforts underway to resurrect this genre of traditional art like propagating Hang Trong paintings in festivals, galleries and transmitting knowledge of making pictures from old craftsmen to young artists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hang Trong painting Vietnamese art Culture of Hanoi Vietnamese painting

Themes and making

Gallery

History

See also

References