Many critics consider landscape to be the highest form of Chinese painting. By the late Tang Dynasty (618-907), landscape painting had evolved into an independent genre that embodied the universal longing of cultivated men to escape their quotidian world to commune with nature. As the Tang Dynasty disintegrated, the concept of withdrawal into the natural world became a major thematic focus of poets and painters. Faced with the failure of the human order, learned men sought permanence within the natural world, retreating into the mountains to find a sanctuary from the chaos of dynastic collapse. The time from the Five Dynasties period to the Northern Song period (907-1127) is known as the "Great age of Chinese landscape". In the north, artists such as Fan Kuan (范宽) and Guo Xi (郭熙) painted pictures of towering mountains, using strong black lines, ink wash, and sharp, dotted brushstrokes to suggest rough stone. In the south, Dong Yuan (董源) and other artists painted the rolling hills and rivers of their native countryside in peaceful scenes done with softer, rubbed brushwork. These two kinds of scenes and techniques became the classical styles of Chinese landscape painting. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), landscapes of
more subtle expression appeared; immeasurable distances were conveyed
through the use of blurred outlines, mountain contours disappearing
into the mist, and impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena.
Emphasis was placed on the spiritual qualities of the painting and on
the ability of the artist to reveal the inner harmony of man and
nature, as perceived according to Taoist and Buddhist concepts. One of
the most famous artists of the period was Zhang Zeduan (张择端), painter of Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河图).
Under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), when many educated Chinese
were barred from government service, the model of the Song literati
retreat evolved into a full-blown alternative culture as this
disenfranchised elite transformed their estates into sites for literary
gatherings and other cultural pursuits. These gatherings were
frequently commemorated in paintings that, rather than presenting a
realistic depiction of an actual place, conveyed the shared cultural
ideals of a reclusive world through a symbolic shorthand in which a
villa might be represented by a humble thatched hut. Because a man's
studio or garden could be viewed as an extension of himself, paintings
of such places often served to express the values of their owner.
Painting was no longer about the description of the visible world; it
became a means of conveying the inner landscape of the artist's heart
and mind. The most notable painters of this period include Huang Gongwang (黄公望), Wang Meng (王蒙), Ni Zan (倪瓒), Wu Zhen (吴镇), and Zhao Mengfu (赵孟頫). During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when native Chinese rule was restored, court artists produced conservative images that revived the Song metaphor for the state as a well-ordered imperial garden, while literati painters pursued self-expressive goals through the stylistic language of Yuan scholar-artists. Shen Zhou (沈周), the patriarch of the Wu school of painting centered in the cosmopolitan city of Suzhou, and his preeminent follower Wen Zhengming (文徵明) exemplified Ming literati ideals. Both men chose to reside at home rather than follow official careers, devoting themselves to self-cultivation through a lifetime spent reinterpreting the styles of Yuan scholar-painters. Morally
charged images of reclusion remained a potent political symbol during
the early years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), a period in
which many Ming loyalists lived in self-enforced retirement. Often
lacking access to important collections of old masters, loyalist
artists drew inspiration from the natural beauty of the local scenery. |
