Page 456 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

sional and amateur painting. By the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth century, when Individualist
painting triumphed, the Heterodox painters and
their works had been largely forgotten.
S.E.L.

305

Zhang Lu
c. 1490-0. 1563
HAWK PURSUING A RABBIT

Chinese
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
158 x 97 (62V 5 x iSVs)
signed: Pingshan
Nanjing Museum

A hawk plummets in pursuit of a wild hare that
desperately leaps for cover in tall grasses, while
two small sparrows near the ground fly out of
harm's way to the right. Time and action are
momentarily stayed, allowing us to comprehend
the scene while anticipating its imminent trans-
formation. The contrasting natures of predator
and prey are emphasized by their forms, angular
and sharp for the former, curvilinear and smooth
for the latter, with the tremulous grasses provid-
ing appropriate notes of agitation and suspense.
The fierce hawk was a well-known symbol for
a rapacious official; the white rabbit, a generalized
emblem for good fortune, acquired during the
Tang dynasty the more specific meaning of good
governance owing to a benign imperial censor.
Zhang's painting thus symbolically conjoins the
potential extremes of political behavior.
Like Sun Long (cat. 303), Zhang Lu com-
manded a reserve technique of dazzling virtuos-
ity. Here large areas were washed in first, creating
an amorphous background for the narrative ele-
ments left starkly in reserve and then detailed
with the "gossamer" line for which Zhang Lu was founder attests —and must have enhanced —the Very* few portable Chinese paintings of pre-
famous. The reserved forms, luminous against the high status that permitted Zhang such indepen- modern times can be absolutely and securely
ink wash of sky and earth, create an almost theat- dence in his dealings with court circles and power dated. Forgeries, copies, works "in the style of"
rical evocation of a moonlit hunt. ful officials. The painting is signed Pingshan, abound. Therefore any scientific excavation that
During his years as a professional artist Zhang which was Zhang Lu's byname. H.R. reveals portable works, usually handscrolls or
Lu came to know many high officials and had hanging scrolls, arouses tremendous interest. In
sometimes to deal with those who regarded his recent years a Liao dynasty (916-1125) tomb pro-
work as craft rather than art. But as he himself duced two tenth-century hanging scrolls of land-
put it: "How can one simply regard [painting] as 306 scapes, and the tomb of a Ming prince (Zhu Tan,
a profit-making activity?" The eminent scholar- 1370-1390) in Shandong Province revealed a
official Xue Hui (1489-1541) described Zhang's Yin Shan (?) handscroll of White Lotus signed and sealed by
reception of those who approached him for a ZHONG Kui AND DEMON ATTENDANTS the famous Qian Xuan (c. 1235-after 1301). The
painting in what he deemed an insufficiently 1982 excavation of the tomb of Wang Zhen (1424-
polite manner: "High officials fly about and before 1503 1496) and his wife, nee Liu (d. 1503), in Huai'an
spread his fame but do not easily get what they Chinese County in northern Jiangsu Province, yielded
want; the visits of nobles with their requests are handscroll; ink 1 on paper twenty-five scrolls. Two of these were Ming
3
empty and without benefit." The marriage of 24.2 x 112.8 (9 /! x 44 /s) copies (or forgeries) of works by famous paint-
Zhang's son to a member of the imperial clan references: Xu 1987; Huai'an 1988 ers—Ren Renfa (1254-1327) and Wang Yuan
directly descended from the Ming dynasty's Huai'an County Museum, Jiangsu Province (c. i28o-after 1349). Most were landscapes, a few

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