Tang Yin (1470-1523), a native of Wu County in Jiangsu province, went by the style name Bohu and the sobriquet Liuru Jushi. Tang was exceedingly talented in the realms of calligraphy, painting, poetry, and prose. He was a renowned scholar in the Jiangsu region during the middle years of the Ming dynasty who also worked in a professional capacity as a painter.
This painting depicts early morning on a summer's day, where boating maidens shuttle across a lotus-covered lake just emerging from dawn mists that have yet to burn away. The entire work features light, sparing ink washes, while the scenery and objects within were painted with a minimalist touch. Masterful brushwork can be seen in many of this painting's features, including its lotus leaves that range from lush and flourishing to old and decaying, as well as its soft, almost weightlessly elegant willow branches. The date inscribed on this painting indicates Tang Yin completed it in his fifty-first year. It is stylistically distinct from works he painted in his prime.
Wu Zhen, a native of Jiaxing with the style name Zhonggui and the sobriquet Meihua ("Plum Blossom") daoren, was one of the Four Great Masters of the Yuan. This album was done in 1350 by Wu at the age of 71 by Chinese reckoning for his son, Fonu. It depicts all manners of bamboo, including new shoots, old stalks, and leaves in wind, rain, and even snow. The bamboo is depicted both archaic and elegant as well as powerful, done in a spirited and dashing manner. Every leaf of depiction reveals how calligraphy was incorporated seamlessly into the painting, the brush moving across the surface with considerable breadth and dynamism in all directions, forming an ideal balance with the force of the brushwork in the often lengthy inscriptions as well. As such, this album is an ideal combination of literati painting and calligraphy. The frontispiece in three characters was rendered in clerical script by Wang Yipeng (?-after 1501) of the Ming dynasty during the Hongzhi reign (1487-1505).
This painting depicts the scenery of high mountains with distant peaks that appear above clouds and a rising foreground enveloped in the mist. The three groups of mountain forms skillfully echo each other, and the blank areas of clouds and mist highlight them further. Despite the small size of the painting, it nonetheless gives the effect of a broad and vast vista. The faceting of the rocks in particular was created using many texture strokes and added washes that form the surface texture, the brushwork here similar to that of Li Tang (ca. 1070-after 1150). It would thus stylistically make this work a transitional piece between Li Tang’s “Wind in Pines Among a Myriad Valleys” and “Intimate Scenery of River and Mountains,” which are also in the National Palace Museum collection. This album leaf bears neither seal nor signature of the artist, the traditional label giving the present title and attribution to Yan Wengui. However, stylistic comparison shows it to be unrelated to Yan, a court painter active in the Northern Song period. Rather, it is judged to probably be a fine work of the early Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) influenced by Li Tang.
Shen Zhenlin (style name Fengchi), a native of Wuxian (modern Suzhou, Jiangsu) served the Qing court painting academy in the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns (1851-1874). He specialized in figures and portraits but was also good at sketching birds and flowers from life as well as landscapes. Famous for his painting, Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) awarded him a plaque that she personally inscribed: "To a miraculous hand that transmits the spirit." In ancient times, people used the homonym of "cat" and "butterfly" for "octogenarian"and "septuagenarian" to express birthday wishes for a venerated elder. This work is composed of two albums rendered with gold and other mineral-based pigments on black paper to depict cats and butterflies playing and roaming among flowers of the seasons.
This painting depicts a herd of deer frolicking and at rest among a dense grove of maple trees in autumn with white birch scattered here and there as well. The painting conveys the flourishing scene of an autumn day somewhere to the north. The deer were completely rendered in light ink and delicate washes, while the trunks and branches of the trees were first delineated with ink and then piled with dense clusters of leaves in outlines. The leaves were then filled with light and dark shades of red, white, yellow, ink, and light blue depending on the type of tree, creating for a dazzling and varied appearance.
The style and dimensions of this painting are quite similar to those of another work in the National Palace Museum ("Herd of Deer in a Maple Grove," verified and declared a National Treasure in 2012). Neither has the seal or signature of the artist, and it is now assumed that both came from the same original set of paintings. Their archaic and overflowing manner has an extremely decorative touch, and the techniques of painting and coloring differ from those used in the Chinese tradition, leading scholars to propose them as representative works of the Liao dynasty from the latter half of the tenth century.
Wang Yuan (style name Ruoshui, sobriquet Danxuan), a native of Qiantang in Zhejiang, started painting as a child and once received instruction from the master Zhao Mengfu. In bird-and-flower painting, Wang followed the tenth-century tradition of Huang Quan, and in landscapes that of Guo Xi in the eleventh century. In figure painting, he followed the Tang dynasty style, in all the above achieving marvelous results.
This painting features a level-distance composition with two tall pines in the middle reaching far upwards. In the foreground is a thatched pavilion by the water with two scholars inside. Behind the treetops are seen sailboats in the distance following the wind. The painting as a whole has a pure and remote tranquility, the brushwork mature and reserved but with a fitting touch of liveliness. Each stroke is solidly placed without a hint of reservation, making it equal to that of Song dynasty artists. The surviving works by Wang Yuan are mostly bird-and-flower subjects in monochrome ink, this being a rare and excellent example of his landscape painting. He completed it in the Zhizheng seventh year (1347).
The ancestors of Gao Kegong (style name Yanjing, sobriquet Fangshan) came from Western Asia, and Gao rose to Minister of Justice in the Yuan dynasty under the Mongols. He also served in office in the Jiangnan area and resided in Hangzhou, having the opportunity to appreciate scenic wonders of the south and to maintain close relations with scholars there. This painting depicts a massive mountain rising in the center, much in the monumental style of Northern Song landscape painting. A winding stream, floating clouds, and rounded peaks with extending banks below give the effect of gentle scenery in the south portrayed more than two centuries earlier by Mi Fu and his son Mi Youren. The painting therefore has characteristics of both northern and southern traditions of landscape painting. Furthermore, the classical archaic blue-and-green coloring adds a vibrant touch of life to the brush and ink. The scroll as a whole reflects the archaistic movement in early Yuan dynasty art, the style a synthesis of various important traditions in Chinese painting history to make this a classical landscape paradigm of Gao Kegong.
This painting depicts two peaks rising to encircle a town with a mountainside temple and countryside shops here and there. The temple buildings are on a level outcropping and constructed up the slope. The valley below is filled with clouds and mists as birds fly about, conveying the sense of a scene at dusk. The brushwork used in depicting the motifs here, including the boats, figures, buildings, trees, and water ripples, is refined and delicate. In particular, the structure and facilities of the boats and architecture of the temple buildings and village shops are meticulously rendered, the figures lifelike in both form and spirit. The scenery, concentrated mostly in the left half of the composition, is quite naturalistically portrayed, and the coloring is also pure and simple yet classical as well. Despite the small size of the painting, the artist's use of washes and dots make the scenery come to and overflow with life. The work bears no seal or signature of the artist, but the style of brush and ink suggest a masterful rendition close to the time of the Northern Song artist Yan Wengui (967-1044).
The Buddha, seated with legs crossed on a lotus pedestal, on either side a heavenly king as protectors of the Buddhist law, the great disciples Ananda and Mahakashyapa, and a bodhisattva making offerings. The Buddha has long eyebrows and delicate eyes for a refined yet majestic appearance, while the two heavenly kings wear armor and brandish a sword and lance to convey their fierce martial spirit. The figures in the painting all vary in terms of expression, each of them true to life.
In the four corners of this painting are half impressions for the double dragon, "Zhenghe" (connected bead), "Zhenghe," and "Xuanhe" seals. They accord with seals used for the "Xuanhe mounting" style of Emperor Huizong (reigned 1101-1125) and therefore indicate it was once in his collection. The swelling forms of the bodhisattva figures and the ink shading to the drapery lines are vestiges of the late Tang dynasty (618-907) style. The indistinct "ushnisha" (head protuberance) of the Buddha and the small mark on the forehead are features of Song Buddha figures, suggesting this scroll was painted in the early part of the dynasty.
Mou Yi, a native of Sichuan, was active under Emperors Lizong and Duzong in the thirteenth century. He excelled at painting figures and excelled at archaic writing and seal script.
This work, done in 1240, is based on "Poetry on Preparing Clothes" by Xie Huilian (397-433) of the Southern Dynasties period. Painted solely in "baimiao" lines of light ink, it depicts 32 women preparing for winter by making clothes for their husbands at the battlefront. Proceeding in sequence, they pound the silk, cut it into pieces, sew them together, and then pack to send the clothes. The ladies' faces are round and full, their robes large and flowing, suggesting archaic vestiges of the Tang dynasty aesthetic. Their deportment is elegant and gracefully refined, but they also have a touch of worry on their faces expressing concern for husbands yet to return from the war. Suffice it to say, among Southern Song (1127-1279) paintings, it captures spousal longing in a most subtle and successful way.
The Ladies' Book of Filial Piety was written by Madame Zheng, the wife of Houmo-Chen Miao, during the Tang dynasty (618-907). It deals with propriety and piety as well as rules of behavior on the part of women. Originally composed of eighteen sections, this handscroll only has half of them remaining. Mounted in an arrangement of alternating texts and images, the traditional label gives the Southern Song emperor Gaozong as the calligrapher and Ma Hezhi as the painter. Ma, a native of Qiantang, was a Presented Scholar during Gaozong's Shaoxing reign (1131-1162) and a favored painter of him and his successor, Xiaozong. Ma's brush method is noted for its untrammeled manner in a style of his own.
The outlines of the figures here are delicate and the facial features pure and beautifully refined. Though the brush and ink are exceptional, they do not correspond to those of Ma Hezhi but instead to the style of another thirteenth-century painter, Ma Lin. Furthermore, the inscription at the beginning attributed to Gaozong is closer to that of a later Southern Song ruler, Lizong (r. 1225-1264), suggesting this is a late Song court production of The Ladies' Book of Filial Piety.
This painting depicts a group of scholars in a garden by a pond enjoying a banquet. A large lacquered table has been placed under a tree with all kinds of tableware and food on it. In the foreground is a group of young attendants around a small table preparing tea. The figures are all spirited and elegant with clear expressions, while the objects and garden motifs are painstakingly rendered, indicating most likely a fine work of Huizong's Painting Academy. Judging from the inscriptions by Huizong and his minister Cai Jing at the top of the painting, it may be surmised that the contents are related to the historical event of the Eighteen Scholars depicted in "Ascending to the Isles of Immortality" in the Tang dynasty (618-907). Although the painting is beautiful and exacting, it still has a scholarly air that fully represents the requirements of and results sought by Huizong for his Painting Academy. Both in terms of quality and research value, it is a rare and important work.
Bian Wenjin was an important bird-and-flower academic painter during the early Ming dynasty active at the Yongle (1402-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) courts. His style followed the tradition of fine brushwork and strong colors tracing back to the Northern Song school of Huang Quan but also integrating the Southern Song Painting Academy manner.