How does Hàng Trống painting elucidate its Themes and making?
The common themes in Hàng Trống paintings are spiritual and cultural symbols such as the white tiger (hổ trắng) or carp (cá chép), which indicate a stronger influence of Buddhism and Taoism than in Đông Hồ painting. However, besides the pictures of worshipping themes, Hàng Trống craftsmen also made paintings with folk themes like Đông Hồ 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 Hàng Trống painting is more urban than in Đông Hồ pictures which are made in the countryside and often reflect a farmer's perspective. Some popular pictures of Hàng Trống 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 Hàng Trống 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, Hàng Trống pictures are slightly different from one to another, thus they become more valuable for the fastidious customers in Hanoi. The paper used in making Hàng Trống painting is called Xuyến chỉ paper (giấy Xuyến chỉ), which differs from the natural colour paper of Đông Hồ painting. Hàng Trống craftsmen colourize pictures with pigments, and therefore the tone of Hàng Trống paintings is usually bright and attractive with principal colours being pink, blue, green, red and yellow.
Carp tiger Hàng Trống Tết Buddhism carp Taoism Đông Hồ painting Tiger Hanoi woodblocks pigment