Page 439 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

to the Hall of Military Valor and was promoted
first to battalion commander and then to guard
commander in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
In the year 1510 the emperor also conferred on
Wang a seal which he subsequently used on his
paintings, together with a patterned sash and
strings of white-gold cash.
Although Wang was one of the major court
artists of the mid-Ming period, only two of his
extant paintings can be associated with specific
dates; both were painted for Japanese envoys on
their departure from the court in Beijing. The
earlier work was done for Minamoto Nagaharu in
1510, the later for Sakugen Shuryo (1501-1579),
who made two trips to China, first in 1539-1541
and again in 1547-1550. Wang E's painting, which
most likely commemorates Sakugen's earlier trip,
bears seals whose legends testify to his imperial
service extending over two reigns: "Seal pre-
sented by the emperor to Wang E" and "Twice
invited to face the Brightness [i.e., into the
presence of the emperor]." It is said that Wang
retired from court service because of illness and
returned home, where he trained several students
before dying past the age of eighty. This would
suggest that Wang was born about 1465 and died
about 1545. H.R.

291

Lii Wenying
active late fifteenth century
RIVER VILLAGE IN A RAINSTORM

c. 1500
Chinese
hanging scroll; ink and slight color on silk
5
3
169.2 x 103.5 (66 /s x 4O /4J
signed (at upper right): Lii Wenying/ seal of the
artist: Ri Jin Qing Guang (Daily Approaching the Zhengde (r. 1505-1521) emperors, and is said to Zhou Chen's (d. c. 1536) landscapes (cat. 295).
Pure Radiance)
references: Cahill 1978, 108, 125; Cleveland 1980, have given up painting for civil administration by These in turn owe much to thirteenth-century
no. 139 1507. Contemporaneous records associated him styles, but in place of the tranquil landscapes
with Lii Ji (c. 1440-^ 1505), who as the more of the Southern Song tradition offer a daring
Cleveland Museum of Art famous of the two was "Big Lii" to Wenying's new view of nature in its most dramatic, even
"Little Lii." Aside from this we know nothing threatening aspects. Lii Wenying's painting,
Until the appearance of this painting in 1969- except his capabilities as attested by this painting. revealing a striking balance between professional
1970, Lii Wenying was known only through two Rainstorms had become a subject for Chinese control of technique and dynamic realization of
figure paintings of the traditional virtuoso subject painting at least as early as Southern Song (1127- the forces depicted, is a major work by a major
The Knickknack Peddler, requiring technical 1279), in lost works by Xia Gui (c. n8o-c. 1220), artist. S.E.L.
virtuosity in the depiction of the "hundred and the genre was continued by such Ming stal-
things/' but not much imagination or invention. warts as Dai Jin (1388-1462). In this rendition Lii
The wild, driving quality and singleness of pur- achieved a perfect if precarious balance between
pose of this painting is therefore astounding by inspiration and skill. Nature in a violent aspect
contrast —it is one of the very best renditions of a was presented with sweeping grandeur, at the
rainstorm within the traditional mode of Chinese same time that the technical virtuosity of the
painting, revealing Lii the prosaic figure painter artist was allowed full play. Some scholars see a
as Lii the master of dramatic landscape. reliance on the traditions of the Southern Song
Lii became a vice-commander in the Imperial dynasty, but a more localized reading suggests the
Guard of the Hongzhi (r. 1487-1505) and artist's awareness of his contemporaries, especially
438 CIRCA 1492