The Song Dynasty Page 4
Xia Gui
Twelve Scenes from a Thatched Cottage by Xia Gui is one of the few large-scale statements of the Lyric mode.
(If you access this link on a desktop, simply click on any section of the extended handscroll image to zoom in. If you’re using an iPad or mobile device, you can magnify the image by pinching and stretching the jpeg with your fingers. Viewing the image in this enlarged format is highly recommended)
‘Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains’ in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (linked above) is another excellent example of his work.
The essence of Xia Gui is contrast, such as the transitions or juxtapositions of ink tones or sharp- edged brush strokes alongside soft wet washes. In compositional matters, near and far distances are contrasted. Also, complex units such as trees, nets, and boats are placed alongside empty silk space or a low misty shoreline against a soaring sharp-edged mountain range.
Where the Northern Sung painters had a uniformly detailed vision of nature in sharp focus, Xia Gui and his contemporaries chose to see things sharply or dimly, in or out of focus, in a less rational, more emotional and dramatic approach.
Muxi and Liáng Kǎi
The art of Xia Gui is not far removed, in the explosive energy of its brushwork, from that of the Chan Buddhist masters living not far from the capital point of view of distance with their monasteries lying on the hill across the West Lake from Hangzhou. Still, these monks were far removed from the court and all it stood for. Muxi’s Six Persimmons is a beautiful work of simplistic design and eloquent ink shading.
Liáng Kǎi is considered the chief of these Buddhist painters; he retired to a temple. Muxi operated from a monastery, and these Buddhist painters dominated the painting of the Hangzhou region throughout the first half of the thirteenth century.
Building on the increasingly dramatic brushwork of the Lyric painters, these Spontaneous masters often returned to more self-contained and even monumental compositions. Their contribution was the wild touch, known as the “Flung ink” technique—primarily practised by monks or others under the Chan Buddhist discipline. This last Song style is a pictorial parallel to the mystic’s sudden enlightenment and the individuals’ revolt against the times of trouble that were the previous years of the Dynasty.
Along the River During the Qingming Festival
This contribution from the painter Zhāng zé duān was kindly brought to my attention by my friend Rose. It is an addition to my original dissertation. I am delighted to share this link from Wikipedia with you.
Along the River During the Qingming Festival is considered the most outstanding work among all Chinese paintings and has been called “China’s Mona Lisa”. This painting reveals much about China in the 11th and 12th centuries. It would be very amiss of me to leave the Song Dynasty without bringing this exquisite handscroll to your attention.
Wáng Xīmèng
The painting, finished by Wang when he was only 18 in 1113, was one of the largest in Chinese history and is described as one of the greatest works of Chinese art.
To me, there is no past or future in art. If a work of art cannot always live in the present,
it must not be considered. The art of the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the great painters who lived in other times is not an art of the past; perhaps it is more alive today than ever.
Pablo Picasso, 1923 (Quote from The Tao of Painting by Mai-Mai-Sze)