Page 24 - Christie's Hong Kong Chinese Paintings May 28 to 29 2022

Looking into the Past –
Paintings and Calligraphy by the Jiangnan
Literati of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

The migration of Central Plains culture to the South began after the Six
Dynasties. Since Southern Song, the transfer of political power to the
South in addition to migration, as well as the commercial development
in urban areas had led to a firm establishment of the cultural foundation
in Jiangnan. The arts and culture of Jiangnan became increasingly
important during the Ming and Qing period, especially for the paintings
and calligraphy whose development was shaped by various local-schools,
such as the Wu school, the Songjiang school and the Yangzhou school.

Literati paintings and calligraphy dominated the painting scene of
Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In contrast to the
professional painters, the origin of literati painters could be traced back
to the Northern Song when Su Shi advocated the ideas that expressing
one’s spirit through form should be the essence of painting, and that
poetry should embody painting and vice versa.

This season, Christie’s Hong Kong is honoured to present a wide range
of literati paintings and calligraphy by the Ming and Qing masters,
including Wen Zhengming, Xie Shichen, Dong Qichang and Jin
Nong. Wen’s calligraphy in various scripts (Lots 820, 821, 824 and
825) represent his versatility and virtuosity. Xie’s Scholarly Gathering till
Twilight (Lot 823) is an impromptu pictorial record of a literati gathering
coupled with the inscriptions by Wen Zhenming and Wen Jia, etc. The
juxtaposition of orthodox calligraphic works and landscapes by Dong
Qichang (Lots 822, 826, 827, 830 and 832) and the eccentric Plants (Lot
828) and Qi script calligraphy (Lots 829 and 831) by Jin Nong offers
diametrically different styles.

According to Wang Xizhi’s Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid
Pavilion: “When future generations look back to my time, it will
probably be similar to how I now think of the past.’’ This also applies to
collecting paintings and calligraphy and indeed, we should cherish the
opportunity of acquiring these literati masterpieces.

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