The Ingenuity of Composition

When doing a work, the artist harmoniously presents motifs in a complete two-dimensional arrangement known as a "composition." This idea goes back to one of the "Six Principles of Painting" proposed by Xie He of the sixth century in his Classified Record of Paintings of Old: "Dividing and planning, positioning and arranging." Bird-and-flower arrangements can generally be divided into two basic categories, complete- and intimate-scene compositions. Complete scenes refer to arrangements with level or deep views that portray the life and situation of birds and flowers in their natural context. Intimate scenes, however, involve more close-up representations emphasizing the subject, often with contrasting areas of solid and void to create a focused yet lyrical atmosphere.

Lü Ji, a native of Yinxian in Zhejiang, has depicted in his painting here bean geese resting for the night, the male standing guard and calling out at the moon. The scene is filled with darkness and mist, creating the effect of forms appearing here and there in fog on a serene autumn evening. The tapestry features weaving on a light blue background. A pair of geese rests at a lakeside with hibiscus and reeds, the sky filled with colorful clouds. The weaving is regulated and dense, the coloring layered with precision.

Both of these works employ complete-scene compositions, and Lü Ji's painting combines both outline and "boneless" wash methods to accurately capture the spirit and manner of birds and flowers. The tapestry for the feathers of the two geese and the patterned water ripples convey a contrast between lyricism and decorativeness.

These two works depict a wild bird with camellia, the branch of blossoms extending into the composition from the upper left and proceeding down to the lower right for an undulating form. Twigs crisscross with blossoms facing in varying directions as a bird looks down and back, the two works appearing as if deriving from the same model. The anonymous painting here shows the bird perched on a branch of camellia blossoms, the coloring bright and refined as the leaves and blossoms twist back and forth naturally in various shades of color, the feathers and down of the bird also carefully portrayed.

The textile here features camellia and a bird in colored silk on a white background. The weaving is mature and skillful, the threads dense and even. The head of the bird has multiple colored threads twisted together to express the colored layers of feathers in a natural and lifelike way.