Page 421 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

of the arhats' single-minded pursuit of Enlighten- and the goat's creates overall visual coherence and Except that he was a professional painter active in
ment, and their avoidance of rote devotional also suggests the religious hypothesis underlying the sixteenth century, not much is known of Ham
practices caused their images to be revered in the painting —that the Enlightened being is at Yundok. Here he has employed a type of composi-
Zen circles. one with the universe. tion apparently introduced into Korean painting
Traditions of arhat iconography emerged and In the upper right corner of the painting is the by Kang Hui-an (cat. 265) in the mid-fifteenth
were sustained in China; Korean and Japanese artist's signature, Hakp'o, rendered in carefully century: a pictorial surface divided into two
interpretations followed one of two fundamental blocked script, and beneath it his seal, Yi Sangjwa. planes; in the foreground a central figure on
Chinese painting styles. One was a polychrome Other of his works survive, including a tiger and which the composition is focused; the background
tradition particularly well articulated in works an interpretation of the Daoist Immortal Xia Ma, divided vertically between the solid mass of a cliff
attributed to two Song dynasty painters recorded sufficient to identify Yi Sangjwa as a representa- and empty space; overhanging vegetation growing
only in Japan: Zhang Sigong and Lu Xinzhong, tive painter of the sixteenth century. Although from the cliffside serving to canopy and further
both of whom were active in the port city of many features of this painting place it in the frame the traveler on his donkey. Across the road
Ningbo in Zhejiang Province. Their works were Guan-Xiu tradition, the brushwork is controlled and parallel to it runs a narrow stream. Beyond
much exported and were widely copied in Japan and the modeling of the figure and his dark outer the stream the cliff rises on the left, cutting off
during the fourteenth century. The arhats were robe carefully executed. These features suggest the traveler's view and ours, while on the right
sometimes painted in various groupings, some- the "professional" touch common to Chinese space recedes and beckons.
times individually, though the paintings of indi- paintings of the Zhe school, which particularly In this painting more than the composition is
vidual arhats might be composed as sets. Usually influenced such Korean artists as Yi Kyongyun reminiscent of Kang Hui-an. The brisk depiction
they were depicted in outdoor settings, which (1545-?) and Yi Chong (1541-1622), both of of the cliff with a minimum number of short,
afforded the artist some creative latitude, the whom were active at the time this painting was irregular, parallel brush strokes; the large leaves
figural iconography being largely immutable. The made. j.u. indicated by wet ink dabs; and the small triangu-
other tradition for arhat representation names as lar rocks in the creek all recall the earlier master.
its source the style of the Chinese Chan adept Between the traveler and his mount there appears
and poet-painter Guan-Xiu (832-912). Although a pointed contrast —the man erect and smiling,
nothing of Guan-Xiu's painting survives, later the donkey with head hanging and legs splayed,
paintings of gnarled, quirky, and grotesquely fea- 27^ exhausted by his burden.
tured holy men depicted in vigorous, expression- Ham Yundok The road leading past the picture frame, the
istic brushwork are usually associated with his i6th century implied motion of the donkey, and the quickly
name or said to be "after his style/' Guan-Xiu executed, spirited brush strokes convey a sense of
purportedly painted such figures on temple walls. MAN RIDING A DONKEY energy and movement and are characteristic of the
Rubbings from stone engravings have, ostensibly, Chinese Zhe school mode, which became popular
transmitted his style, but our knowledge of it Korean with both professional and amateur painters
remains derivative and speculative. album leaf; ink and light color on silk of Korea during the sixteenth century. The light
In the present painting the arhat is seated in a 15.5 x 19.4 (6Vs x 7%j pink of the traveler's robe adds a lighthearted
casual pose on a partially visible rock, surrounded National Museum of Korea, Seoul quality to the painting. K.P.K.
by scattered tufts of grass or bamboo grass. The
figure grasps a monk's staff (J: shakujo) with
both hands, holding it not upright in the usual
fashion but across his lap, parallel to the ground.
Tradition assigns to this wooden staff with its
metal finial and loose metal rings two purposes,
both imparted by the Buddha to his disciples and
both accomplished by the jingling of the metal
rings when the staff is shaken: to announce the
presence of an alms-seeking monk while preserv-
ing his vow of silence, and to warn off small
creatures that might otherwise be crushed by a
monk's inadvertent step. Although the painting's
subject is merely identified as an arhat, the
twelfth arhat, Nagasena, is often depicted with
a goat, symbolizing that holy man's Enlightened
ease with other orders of the sentient world.
In this painting a goat stands before the figure, its
head turned toward him with an expression of
affectionate trust. The arhat, hunched forward,
returns the gaze with intense, delighted eyes.
The present painting is rendered on rough-
textured silk. Its essential elements, though
sparse, are carefully composed in a series of vec-
tors and diagonals which not only convey the
communion between arhat and beast but also
create a sense of space and dynamism. The skill-
fully rendered parallel between the arhat's posture

420 CIRCA 1492