Celebrated Artists Copying Famous Paintings: Li Tang

Author: Zhou Yanggao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The origins of Chinese landscape painting date back to the Jin and Tang dynasties, it matured during the Five Dynasties and Song dynasties, and reached its zenith in the Yuan dynasty—this is the consensus in art history and indeed the three major historical stages of the over-1,000-year evolution of landscape painting. The pivotal figure in the transition from origins to maturity was Jing Hao during the late Tang to Five Dynasties and early Liang period. His achievements not only established landscape painting as the foremost genre in Chinese art ("landscape as the foremost") but also elevated the monochrome ink style to the highest rank ("ink as the ultimate"). The significance of monochrome ink landscape painting as the dominant form in Chinese painting actually transcends the artistic category of value orientation, exerting a profound influence on the humanistic spirit of traditional Chinese culture and supporting the spread and growth of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in Chinese thought. In terms of landscape painting itself, its maturity was the maturity of ink techniques, and its zenith was also the zenith of ink techniques. The pivotal figure in the transition from maturity to zenith was Li Tang during the Northern Song to early Southern Song period. Li Tang pushed the texture technique (gūnfǎ) of landscape painting to its peak complexity, pioneered the technique of side-brushing and horizontal rubbing, and combined it with dot and line textures. This made the texture technique later known as "iron scraping" almost in depicting the texture of rocks and mountains, greatly expanding the originally limited expressive capabilities of monochrome ink. However, after the Southern Expedition, he transformed extreme complexity into extreme simplicity, creating the rigid, concise, and clear "edge-and-corner" landscape style of the Southern Song. This is primarily evident in his "Wanhe Pine Wind Painting" created in the spring of the Jiachen year of the Xuanhe sixth year. Then, by analyzing the "Small Scenery of Rivers and Mountains" scroll, which shows clear exploratory traces before the formation of the iron scraping technique, and finally analyzing his typical minimalist works purely executed with the (fǔpī gūnfǎ) technique, such as the "Clear Stream Fisherman's Seclusion" scroll. Through this approach, we can gain a relatively comprehensive understanding of Li Tang's art and its significant role in art history.