Page 353 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

whatever it pleases. Then start to write. If retroactive reordering of the history of Chinese individuals and factions. Obviously the Jin Yi
pressed in any way, even if one had [a brush painting was accomplished, making the so- Wei was not an apt instrument for the support
of] hair from hares of [Zhongshan], one called Southern school the sole transmitter of a of artists, but supported they were through
would not do well. tradition that the literati designated true and appointments to and ranks in the guard. Perhaps
In writing first sit silently, quiet your mind orthodox. The "others" were piled into a so- the Xuande and succeeding emperors used the
called Northern
school, henceforth decried as
and let yourself be free. Do not speak, do not guard not only as a means of paying painters
We have seen such dra-
false and unorthodox.
breathe fully; rest reverently, feeling as if matic revisionism in other times and other and assuring their presence for service at court
but
also, and more importantly,
as a means of
you were before a most respected person. places —in French neoclassicism of the late
Then all will be well. restraining any subversive intent or inclinations
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, or to what could be considered license. One can
In its forms writing should have images like within the numerous "isms" of the twentieth readily understand the painters' lack of enthu-
sitting, walking, flying, moving, going, century. The Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) wen siasm for such service, and the reasons why
coming; lying down, rising; sorrowful, ren masters were instrumental in this rewriting many of the very best professionals preferred to
joyous; like worms eating leaves, like sharp of history, but the murderous hostility of the breathe the freer air of southern Jiangsu Prov-
swords and spears, strong bow and hard first Ming emperor toward their immediate suc- ince, especially in the prosperous Suzhou-
arrow; like water and fire, mist and cloud, cessors virtually wiped out the wen ren tradi- Nanjing area. North China, including the
sun and moon, all freely shown — this can be tion in the first half of Ming. Indeed, from the capital, became additionally unattractive in
called calligraphy. removal of the capital from Nanjing to Beijing 1449, after the disastrous defeat of the imperial
(Cai Yong (A.D. 133-192), quoted by Chen Si in 1421 until the early sixteenth century Ming army and the capture of the emperor by the
(13th c.) in Shu Yuan Ying Hua, translated in art was dominated by traditional painters build- Mongols. It was many years before the military
Driscoll and Toda, 1935, 1964.) ing creatively on the past —by the artists called threat abated, even in the capital.
to court and by professional painters elsewhere, The perilous vagaries of service in the
The dynamism of Chinese calligraphy is implicit
in the numerous critical writings on the sub- especially in the regions of Suzhou and Nan- Embroidered Uniform Guard may also explain
ject. From the initial intention and conception, jing. If a narrow trail of literati connects the late the curious history of Dai Jin (1388-1462), by
through the physical activity of fingers, hand, Yuan and early Ming painters of that persuasion general opinion the painter of the greatest abil-
ity and breadth of the mid-fifteenth century.
(only four artists make up this
Shen Zhou
with
arm, and body in making the conception visible
through brush, ink, and paper, to the "sym- trail —Wang Fu [1362-1416], Liu Jue [1410- Called to court to paint for the Xuande emperor,
pathetic responsiveness" of the beholder to the 1472], Du Qiong [1396-1474], and Yao Shou he was forced to flee for his very life by the
of these only Wang Fu can
[1423-1495] — and
implications of the appearance of the result, the claim major importance), a broad road runs from intrigues of his painter-rival Xie Huan (act.
1426-1436), who had the emperor's ear. Dai
relationships are complex and shifting, hardly
amenable to "laws" of doing and appreciating. earlier dynasties to the professional masters. fled first to Hangzhou; finding that not far
Yet from Cai Yong on a continual sequence of enough for safety, he moved on to Yunnan
where he was
Province in the far southwest,
writers about calligraphy have attempted to lend Court Painters and the fortunate to be befriended by the local prince,
objectivity and precision to standards expressed Embroidered Uniform Guard Mu Sheng (1368-1439), a collector and connois-
largely in metaphor.
These efforts increased markedly during the One of the major concerns of all Ming seur. Later Dai returned to Beijing and pursued
Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), accompany- emperors, beginning with the Xuande emperor his painting career there, though not under
(r.
1425-1435),
was the
of a kind
maintenance
ing the pragmatic Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi of legitimacy based on a connection with ear- court patronage. The Xuande emperor, however,
time of Dai's return.
was safely
dead by the
(1130-1200). The rise of wen ren pictorial art in
Notwithstanding the capricious and con-
the fourteenth century imposed on brushwork lier, more glorious reigns. The Xuande emperor straining nature of Ming imperial patronage, in
for he was
had good reason to support painters,
an explicitly historical approach and more a good, if not great, painter in his own right. In the second half of the fifteenth century the
stringent standards. While this may have inhib- this he was a minor echo of Emperor Hui Zong court attracted many fine painters, particularly
ited the majority of practitioners after 1400, it (r. 1101-1126), a marvelous artist and discern- in the reigns of the Chenghua emperor (r. 1464-
also provided a firm base line and frame of ing patron under whom the Northern Song 1487), the Hongzhi emperor (r. 1487-1505), and
reference for the determined individualism of
the outstanding masters of Ming (1368-1644) court painting academy (Hua Yuan) achieved the Zhengde emperor (r. 1505-1521). It is no
coincidence that these reigns also produced
heights of artistic accomplishment. Since a true
and Qing (1644-1911).
academy like Hui Zong's, complete with desig- splendid ceramics and lacquers (see cat. 321-
nated academicians, competitions, hierarchies of 329, 334-336). The professional-conservative
masters and students, was not considered appro- painters were quite evenly divided between
priate for a Ming court, the Xuande emperor northerners and southerners, and the conserva-
COURT, PROFESSIONAL, AND made the imperial bodyguard, the Embroidered tive painters represented in this exhibition
"HETERODOX" PAINTING Uniform Guard (Jin Yi Wei), function as a sub- reflect this balance between the capital in the
The death of Shen Zhou in 1509 marks almost stitute. Founded in 1382, soon after the begin- north and the Suzhou-Nanjing area.
exactly the midpoint of the Ming dynasty, both ning of the dynasty, the guard was a military
chronologically and artistically. By the end of organization, personally responsible to the
the sixteenth century critical opinion had been emperor and with often-abused powers of Subjects and Materials
preempted by the literati (wen ren), at whose imprisonment and torture. Its reputation varied The production of the court painters was even
hands conservative painters and painting from fearsome to disreputable, and it was often more varied than that of the southerners, and
received a widespread and lasting bad press. A a hotbed of intrigue and competition among the imperial patronage may account for this.
352 CIRCA 1492