六朝指三国的东吴、东晋、南朝的宋、齐、梁、陈，皆以建康（吴名建业，江苏南京）为首都。四家，画史上指东吴曹不兴、东晋顾恺之、南朝宋陆探微、南朝梁张僧繇。

唐代张怀瑾评六朝画谓：“张（僧繇）得其肉，陆（探微）得其骨，顾（恺之）得其神。”六朝画罕见,尤以曹不兴之迹无存。元代汤后土认为曹不兴《兵符图》一卷，“笔意神采，疑是唐末宋初人所为”。

 The Six Dynasties refer to the Three Kingdoms of Eastern Wu, Eastern Jin and Southern Song, Qi, Liang and Chen, all of which are headed by Jiankang (Wu Ming Jianye, Nanjing, Jiangsu). Four schools in the history of painting refer to Cao Buxing in Eastern Wu Dynasty, Gu Kaizhi in Eastern Jin Dynasty, Lu Xue in Southern Song Dynasty and Zhang Sengxi in Southern Dynasty.

Zhang Huaijin commented on the paintings of the Six Dynasties in the Tang Dynasty, saying: "Zhang (monk) gets his flesh, Lu (probing) gets his bone, Gu (kai) gets his god." Paintings of the Six Dynasties are rare, especially those of Cao Buxing. Tang Houtu of the Yuan Dynasty thought that Cao Buxing's Volume "Bingfu Tu" was "the spirit of writing, suspected to be done by people in the late Tang and early Song Dynasties".