The Yuan Dynasty Page 2

Two Cypress (Twin Pines) – Wú Zhèn

‘Two Cypress’ is dated 1328 and is now in Taipei’s National Museum. With its excellent design and tonal pattern, this Landscape Painting is very close to nature.

The accurate lessening of trees aids the effect of flat depth, simplifying forms as the scene recedes into the distance. A feature characteristic of the age is how ink is laid on and piled up thick, dense masses with abrupt, forceful brushstrokes in the immediate foreground.

Ni Zan

Ni Zan

Ni Zan was born to a well-to-do family living in Wuxi on the Grand Canal, just northwest of Suzhou. He married and had several children. Ni Zan spent his early years amid all the amenities available to a wealthy man of taste.

He became fastidious to a degree and, in this respect, was very like Mi Fu. He was constantly washing, and if his guest were not spotless, then that guest’s room would immediately be scrubbed on his departure.

However, the man’s true character became apparent in his later life. His was the real Taoist nature, the recluse in revolt against the follies of his time, social institutions and even the demands upon the spirit inherent in possessions.

Gradually, he freed himself of his belongings and simplified his life more and more until 1356, when he took the final step in his early fifties and broke all ties with his home. For many years after that, he and his wife lived a roaming life on a small houseboat, travelling up and down the streams and through the lakes of South-Eastern Jiangsu, one of the most scenic areas in China.

The details concerning Ni Zan’s life are of interest because they relate directly to the nature of his painting and also because, for the artists of the Ming period, he became a brilliant example of the ideal man possessing a free, clean spirit, detached from ambition but active in the uninhibited expression of his creative genius.

Rocks, Trees, and Bamboo in the Rain – Ni Zan

Almost all of his paintings are on a relatively small scale, and a large scale would be entirely unsuitable to his very intimate and personal style. The compositions, too, are simplest, with no towering peaks, crashing waterfalls, and no substantial gnarled old trees or mist-drenched hills.

It was said of Ni Zan that he treasured ink like gold, and indeed no other Chinese painter has been so sparing of it. Technically the superb quality of Ni Zan’s work is derived from his compositional placing of a few simple elements and the skillfulness of his drawing. This latter is difficult to explain. It has the appearance of being loose, sketchy, and might seem almost thin.

However, it is admired by the Chinese almost above all others. It is strong without the appearance of strength, forceful without the display of force, seemingly off-hand and careless when it is the final result of long and arduous practice, and accessible when it is the product of iron self-discipline.

Later Yuan Paintings

Later paintings of the Yuan Dynasty echoed the works of Wang Meng and Ni Zan. Perhaps Wang Meng was copied more at this stage.

Farewell by a Stream on a Clear Day – Zha'o Yua´n

‘Farewell by a Stream on a Clear Day’ by Zhao Yuan had an apparent textual relationship to Wa´ng Me´ng, except that Zha'o used more minor strokes, even just points of ink.

In his painting ‘Streams and Mountains, ‘Xu Ben owed much to the painting style of Ni Zan for his delicate tree forms and dry textures.

This marriage of the two seemingly incompatibles is an accomplishment in itself, an accomplishment in a single work that was as complete and final as the total accomplishment of the Yuan painters on a larger scale.