Chou Ying Paintings

Author: Lin Jiazhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: Imagining the styles of ancient sages, carefully crafted, it can be called the pinnacle of painting and a triumph in the art world. Qiu Ying was like floating duckweed, like misty fog—his coming and going left no trace. Even after thousands of years, we still cannot clearly understand his youth, his loves and hates. As we linger among the magnificent paintings he left behind, we can faintly hear, deep in the annals of history, a sigh that is both present and absent.
Qiu Ying (c. 1493–1560), styled Shifu, styled Shizhou, was from Taicang, Jiangsu. Born into a craftsman family, he was diligent and eager to learn, creating with meticulous care. The figures and landscapes he painted were exquisitely detailed, with elegant colors, dense compositions, profound artistic conception, and a refined yet rigorous style, marked by unique ingenuity unmatched by others. Thus, he earned respect in the art world and became one of the four great masters of the Wumen School of Painting. His landscape paintings excelled in blue-green landscapes, with delicate brushwork, sharp character, rich colors, and intricate compositions, such as The Sword Pass. His meticulous figure paintings were accurate in form and expressive in spirit, with vibrant and brilliant colors, and he was also skilled in architectural painting. He was familiar with folk life and drew inspiration from folk art forms like lantern paintings, fan paintings, and woodblock prints. At the same time, he was also an adept at copying ancient paintings.