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Dong Qichang (董其昌, 1555–1636), courtesy name
Xuanzai (玄宰), was a Chinese painter, scholar, calligrapher, and art
theorist of the later period of the Ming Dynasty. Dong Qichang was born
to a poor but scholarly family. He passed the jinshi (“advanced
scholar”) examination at the age of thirty-five and was appointed to
the first of a series of official positions within the Ming government.
Dong Qichang’s own calligraphy followed the style of the eminent
calligraphers Zhao Mengfu and Wen Zhengming and, ultimately, of masters
of the Jin and Tang dynasties. Like the former two artists, his
creative approach was conscientious, disciplined, scholarly, and
systematic, seeking out the spirit rather than slavishly reproducing
the outward appearance of his models.
In his paintings, Dong Qichang especially favoured the Four Masters of
the Yuan dynasty (Huang Gongwang 黄公望, Wu Zhen 吴镇, Wang Meng 王蒙, and Ni Zan 倪瓒), who
had both the selfless personality and the personal style indicative of
the artist-scholar’s highest ideal. His paintings reveal his debt to
them in both style and motif, yet he went considerably beyond them in
banishing all immediate beauty from his art and stressing instead stark
forms, seemingly anomalous spatial renderings, and clumsy handling of
ink and brush. Dong Qichang’s writings appear on his art itself as well
as in various compilations of his writings—including the anthologies
Huayen (The Eye of Painting, 画眼), Huazhi (The Meaning of Painting, 画旨),
and Huachanshi Suibi (Notes from the Painting-Meditation Studio [of
Dong Qichang], 画禅室随笔). |
Artworks by Dong Qichang (view the entire painting gallery) |
