Overseas Collection of Famous Chinese Paintings from Ancient Times (Volumes 1-8)

Author: Xu Liming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-12-01
Features:
Fragment: The most influential follower of Dai Jin and the leader of the Zhe School who emerged later was Wu Wei. Wu Wei (1459–1500) was a painter with exceptional artistic talent and an unrestrained temperament, achieving high acclaim in both landscape and figure painting. Wu Wei's style, though divided into rough and refined modes, primarily built upon Dai Jin's vigorous and unrestrained brushwork, with even more bold and robust strokes, especially in landscape painting. His brushwork was unrestrained, fluid, and full of power. In fact, Wu Wei's style had already diverged from Dai Jin's. Wu Wei enjoyed great reputation in the mid-Ming painting scene and had numerous followers, including Zhang Lu, Jiang Song, Wang Zhao, Zheng Wenlin, Chen Zihe, Zhang Yizheng, and Wu Liangzhi, among others. After Wu Wei, the Zhe School expanded geographically beyond Zhejiang and no longer limited its members to "practitioners"—professional painters who made a living by selling art. The center of Zhe School activity also shifted from Hangzhou in Zhejiang to Nanjing.
From the mid-Ming period onwards, Zhe School painters, though active in different regions and with varying preferences in subject matter and style, all revered Dai Jin and Wu Wei, further emphasizing the rough, vigorous, and unrestrained brushwork in their art. Some painters and works went to extremes in pursuit of boldness, bordering on recklessness. From Zhang Lu to Chen He, these painters, whose styles and artistic tastes diverged from the refined and restrained aesthetics of literati painters, were largely dismissed by the Wu School and the "orthodox" painting circles of the Qing Dynasty as the "decadent branch of Zhe School," labeling them as "perverse art that merely displays" and even targeting Dai Jin, Wu Wei, and even the Song Dynasty's Ma Yuan and Xia Gui. While critiquing the vices of Zhe School's decadent branch is justifiable, it is unacceptable to denigrate and dismiss the artistic achievements of other schools from the perspective of factionalism and "orthodox" literati painting.
With the rise of the Wu School, the Zhe School centered around Jinling lost its dominance in the painting scene after the Jiajing era. The activities of Zhe School painters shifted to smaller towns, particularly in the coastal regions of Fujian. Their works, facilitated by trade, flowed continuously into Japan, exerting some influence on the Japanese art world. By the late Ming Dynasty, the Zhe School as a school had declined, but its painting style was still adopted by many artists. Notably, Xie Shichen and Lan Ying, known as the "last leader of the Zhe School," adopted an inclusive attitude, blending the vigorous brushwork of the Zhe School with the elegant charm of literati painting, creating fresh and innovative works thated artistic perspectives. Yet, the styles of Xie Shichen and Lan Ying differed significantly from those of Dai Jin and Wu Wei.
In the mid-Ming period, as the Zhe School declined and the Wu School rose and flourished, Suzhou replaced Jinling as the center of the painting scene. Suzhou had been a prosperous city since the Tang Dynasty. In the late Yuan and early Ming periods, it became the cultural hub of Jiangnan due to its economic strength and geographical advantages. Ni Zan and Wang Meng, two of the "Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty," frequently visited Suzhou, while local and nearby literati painters such as Wang Fu, Xu Ben, Ma Wan, Lu Guang, Chen Ruyan, Liu Jie, and Du Qiong were also highly active, becoming pioneers of the Wu School. This period can be considered the heyday of literati painting centered around Suzhou. However, this situation changed relatively soon after the Ming Dynasty was established, influenced by Zhu Yuanzhang's cultural authoritarianism and the establishment of the imperial painting academy.
From the late Hongwu era to the Chenghua era, Suzhou entered a period of silence in the painting scene, which was also a period of stagnation for literati painting. In the mid-Ming period, with the development of the economy, Suzhou regained its status as the cultural hub of Jiangnan. Many scholars, literati, and painters gathered here to engage in cultural and artistic activities, creating an unprecedentedly vibrant cultural atmosphere. Artworks became further commercialized, and the practice of collecting calligraphy and painting, antiques, rare books, building gardens, and in clothing and utensils flourished. It was in this atmosphere that the Wu School painting gradually rose to prominence and became the most influential school after the Zhe School. Shen Zhou was the founder of the Wu School, Wen Zhengming succeeded Shen Zhou as the leader, while Tang Yin and Qiu Ying were its allies. In art history, they are generally referred to as the "Four Masters of Wu School" or the "Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty."
Wu School painters were mostly "unconventional scholars and literati with unrestrained temperaments." In painting, they inherited the styles of Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, and the Yuan Dynasty masters while also incorporating elements of the Southern Song imperial academy's landscape painting, pursuing the effects of artistic spirit and elegance. Their lively brushwork contained aesthetic tastes distinct from the sparse and desolate style of Yuan Dynasty literati painting. Their approaches to subject matter and composition reflected the innovations brought by societal changes.
Though the Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty shared a bond of friendship and common aesthetic interests, their individual backgrounds, experiences, personalities, and temperaments led to distinct styles in their painting. Shen Zhou (1427–1509) came from a family of scholars, with both his grandfather and father being skilled in poetry and painting. He learned painting from his father, Du Qiong, Liu Jie, and Chen Ji, often visiting scenic spots in Taihu Lake, Yixing, Yushan, and Hangzhou, leading a life of elegance befitting a literati painter. He excelled in landscape, figure, flower-and-bird, and feathered-bird painting, with landscape painting being particularly outstanding. His landscape painting style drew from Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Huang Gongwang, and Wu Zhen. In his early years, he specialized in imitating ancient styles, creating exquisite small works. After the age of forty, he deeply studied the styles of Huang Gongwang and Wu Zhen, transforming his approach. He once collected Huang Gongwang's "Fuchun Mountain Residence," which greatly influenced him, leading to a style dominated by rubbing techniques with fluid, sparse, and minimalist brushwork. In his later years, Shen Zhou studied Wu Zhen and adapted his style, making it more profound, robust, expansive, and heavy, with a sense of power that could "shoulder a pillar."