Page 186 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

style, requiring great skill in handling the medium, that is related
to the boneless technique we have already encountered in land-
scape painting.
The technique of his contemporary and great rival at Nanking,
Hsu Hsi, was apparently quite different, for he drew his flowers
and leaves swiftly in ink and ink-wash, adding only a little colour.
Huang Ch'iian's style was considered the more skillful and deco-
rative, and eventually became more popular with professionals
and court painters, while Hsu Hsi's, because it was based on the
free use of brush and ink, found favour among the literati.
Huang's son Huang Chu-ts'ai, among others, successfully com-
bined elements of both styles. No original from the hand of
Huang Ch'iian or Hsu Hsi has survived, but their techniques arc
still popular with flower painters today.
A comment by the critic Shen Kua on the work of Huang and
his son, on the one hand, and Hsu, on the other, throws an inter-
esting light on the standards by which this kind of painting was
judged in the Sung Dynasty.
The two Huangs' flower paintings are marvellous [mido) in their han-
195 Attributed to Huang Chu-tVai dling of colours. Their brushwork is extremely fresh and finely detailed.
(933-993) Phratant and Sparrows amid
Ro<ks and Shmbt Hanging jcroll. Ink The ink lines are almost invisible, and are supplemented only by washes
and colour on silk, Northern Sung of light colours. Their sort of painting you might call sketching from
Dynasty.
life. Hsu Hsi would use his ink and brush to draw in a very broad way,
add a summary colouring, and that would be all. With hi \ the spiritual
quality is pre-eminent, and one has a special sense of animation. Ch'iian
disliked his technique, called his work coarse and ugly, and rejected it as
being without style. J
This was the true professional speaking.