Yes.
In the paintings of the Yuan Dynasty, literati paintings occupied the mainstream of the painting world. Since there was no art academy in the Yuan Dynasty, except for a few professional painters who directly served the court, most of them were scholar-official painters in high positions and literati painters in the opposition.
Their creations are relatively free and express their own living environment, taste and ideals. Landscapes, dead trees, bamboos, rocks, plum orchids and other themes appeared in large numbers, while figure paintings that directly reflected social life decreased. The work emphasizes the literary nature and the charm of pen and ink, attaches great importance to the use of calligraphy brushes in painting and the three combinations of poetry, calligraphy and painting.
Landscape painting was the most popular painting in the Yuan Dynasty. Its creative ideas, artistic pursuits, and style all reflected the main tendencies of the painting world and had the most profound influence on later generations. The landscape painters of the early Yuan Dynasty were represented by Qian Xuan, Zhao Mengfu and Gao Kegong. They all seriously explored traditional landscape painting and relied on ancient times to find new ways.
Qian Xuan is good at painting green landscapes. He learned from Li Sixun, Li Zhaodao and his son in the Tang Dynasty, and Zhao Boju in the Southern Song Dynasty. He also incorporated the brushwork and charm of literati paintings, giving him a sense of crudeness. Zhao Mengfu's landscape paintings widely absorbed the strengths of famous artists, emphasized the origin of calligraphy and painting, and introduced calligraphy brushes into painting creation, forming a variety of looks.
In his early years, he studied the Jin and Tang Dynasties, mostly using green colors, such as "Young Yu Qiu Gu Tu", which is filled with empty marks and no cracked spots, with an old-fashioned style; after the age of 46, he learned from Dong Yuan of the Five Dynasties and Li of the Northern Song Dynasty. Cheng and Guo Xi mainly used ink and wash, and sometimes organically combined ink and green painting methods. They swept away the traditional style of the Southern Song Dynasty and developed the expression techniques of landscape painting, making outstanding achievements.
Gao Kegong varied between Mi Fu, Dong Yuan and Li Cheng, forming a unique style of pure and elegant style, which was at the same level as Zhao Mengfu and Qian Xuan in the early Yuan Dynasty. In the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, four great masters emerged: Huang Gongwang, Wang Meng, Wu Zhen, and Ni Zan.
There were also a group of landscape painters in the Yuan Dynasty, each with their own masters and unique characteristics, and they also enjoyed high reputations in the history of painting. Among them, painters who were influenced by Zhao Mengfu and followed the painting techniques of Li Cheng and Guo Xi include Sheng Mao, Shang Qi, Cao Zhibai, Zhu Derun, Tang Di and others. Influenced by Huang Gongwang and Wang Meng, those who also studied under Dong Yuan and Ju Ran included Lu Guang, Ma Wan, Chen Ruyan, Fang Congyi, Zhao Yuan and others.
Those who studied the Southern Song Dynasty’s courtyard landscape painting method and preserved the legacy of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui include Sun Junze, Ding Yefu and others. In addition, the landscapes and pavilions of Wang Zhenpeng, Li Rongjin, Zhu Yu and others are famous painters in the Yuan Dynasty, with their neat and detailed brushwork and precise calculations.
Extended information:
The four masters of landscape painting in the Yuan Dynasty had various schools of thought and their influence on later generations.
In the Yuan Dynasty, when there were many schools of landscape painting, there is no doubt that the painting style represented by the four Yuan painters is the most representative of the landscape painting style of the Yuan Dynasty. So what exactly prompted them to become the Yuan Dynasty painters? A representative of landscape painting style.
The "Shang Li", "Shang Dharma" and "Zhen" of Song paintings are the ideals of almost all painters in the Five Dynasties and the early Northern Song Dynasty. This has influenced the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was not until the Yuan Dynasty that it turned into The care and expression of the inner heart has changed from the spiritual concept of describing a grand cosmology to the pursuit of inner liberation and the careless pursuit of oneself without seeking appearance.
This is the different ideals of different landscape painters in the Song and Yuan dynasties, which has also become an internal opportunity for the change of landscape painting style in the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Yuan Dynasty, this painting concept was promoted by Qian Xuan and Zhao Mengshun. The literati painters provided guidance in practice and theory, and the four schools of Yuan Dynasty matured.
Their achievements represent the peak reached by the entire Yuan Dynasty landscape painting art. This is the key to their influence and the transformation of the Yuan Dynasty landscape painting style. Looking at their works, this expression becomes even clearer.
Among the four masters of the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Gongwang was the oldest and the first to mature in his painting style. He also indirectly influenced the creations of Ni Zan, Wu Zhen and Wang Meng. He was one of the changes in the painting style of the Yuan Dynasty. Off twist. Zhang Chou's "Qinghe Painting and Calligraphy Boat" of the Ming Dynasty records that he "has two painting styles: one that uses light crimson colors, with rocky hills and majestic brushstrokes, and the other that uses ink painting, with very few patterns and a particularly simple and far-reaching brushwork." This review is generally correct.
Those who comment on painting have always believed that Yuan paintings favored simplicity. The simplicity of the paintings changed from the complexity of the Song Dynasty's "pictures and truths" and was written out in pen and stroke. This is its simplicity.
And it is said that although the Song Dynasty people were complex, they were always simple, and although the Yuan people were simple, they were not complex. This "complexity" is the complexity of the Yuan people's writing style.
The paintings of the Yuan Dynasty are loose and transparent but not slack, which is most obvious in Huang Gongwang's paintings and the most representative ones such as "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" and "Nine Peaks of Snow and Fog" ", "Danya Jade Tree Picture", "Tianchi Stone Wall Picture", etc. are all his classic works. Regardless of whether it is simple or complex, dense or sparse, it can be rigorously organized and gracefully written, giving people a pure and peaceful inner experience and feeling.
The most representative and influential work among these works is undoubtedly "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains", which is a long scroll created in his later years. The form of the Great Harmony, the viewpoint slowly moving with the ups and downs of the mountains, and the continuous flat hills, are enough to make people feel relaxed and happy. If you look at only one part of the picture, there are rich changes in dryness, wetness, and rubbing, all of which reflect the rich cultural connotation. .
In terms of technique, it broke through Dong Ju's barriers. Although it followed the methods used in Zhao Mengqing's "Water Village Picture" and other works, it made breakthroughs and became a brand new art. The expression technique completed the transformation of the landscape painting of the Yuan Dynasty. Some people compare "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" to Youjun's "Orchid Pavilion", which shows the high level of his achievements.
Little Huang Gongwang of Wu Town was in his teens, and they were finally the same age. Among the four families of the Yuan Dynasty, the other three mostly used dry brushes to describe their paintings, but Wu Zhen liked to use wet ink and heavy brushes to depict the pictures. This is what makes Wu Zhen different from others. For example, "Picture of the Fisherman" he painted when he was fifty-seven years old. The beginning of the picture shows shoals, rocks, and water plants. Later, there is a fisherman fishing in a boat. There are two trees on one island in the middle, and another on the other side. The distant mountains and streams are faintly obscured.
The painting uses wet ink to outline the outline of the mountains and rocks, which are slightly rubbed, then rendered again with wet ink, and then dotted with thick ink to give the whole picture a deep and rich feeling.
In fact, Wu Zhen learned from Dong Ju, especially Yu Juran. He could change Juran's "light ink and light blue" into "dark and strong", giving people inner strength without showing any traces. This feeling is a level that rises from aesthetics to a realm of humanities and even philosophy. It is also the most fundamental thing that reflects the transformation of the style of Yuan painting in the Yuan Dynasty from the inner level.
In terms of painting patterns, Wu Zhen's compositions are also very strange. For example, in his painting "Two Pines in the Horizon", two tall and powerful pines stand tall against the sky and occupy almost the entire painting. The hillside From near to far, it disappears in the middle of the painting. This pattern is relatively rare in the history of painting.
Another example is his "Zhongshan Picture", in which several mountains embrace each other. At first glance, it seems unremarkable, but in fact it is a combination of danger and peace. If such a picture is not handled well, it will appear uninteresting. , and Wu Zhen can handle it so easily and casually, one cannot help but be impressed.
Wang Meng is one of the four paintings of the Yuan Dynasty that has relatively dense paintings. His landscape paintings are exquisite in depiction and his brushwork and ink skills are profound. Ni Zan praised him as "a prince whose brushwork can carry the weight of a cauldron, and there is no such king in five hundred years." This is a very high evaluation. He is also good at using colors boldly, which is rare among other literati painters.
In fact, the atmosphere, style and artistic taste of Wang Meng's landscape paintings are very different from those of his predecessors, and are unique. For example, in his "Residence in Qingbian", the mountains and trees are layered on top of each other, the patterns are dense, and the ink techniques are wet and dry. The expression of the techniques is extremely rich, and the whole picture presents a vast and vast landscape with a deep and beautiful look. His artistic conception and mental state were unprecedented in the Yuan Dynasty.
Another example is "Ge Zhichuan Migration Picture". The picture also has a panoramic composition. The trees in the picture are double-hooked and painted with strong colors. The mountains and rocks are mainly made of ink with a little light color. The whole work is It is written with dry brush and light ink, and no handwriting can be seen. The ink color is light, dry and loose, with rich layers. The realm shown in the painting is also different from ordinary people.
His other representative works include "Taibai Mountain Picture", "Summer Mountain Dwelling Picture", "Ju District Forest House Picture", "Peach Blossom Fishing Boat Picture", etc., which all represent his artistic achievements. In short, his dense landscapes are not like Dong Yuan Juran's but still show traces of depiction.
Although the emphasis is on realism, it has become graceful and thick, taking both form and spirit into account. Especially his painting method of using brushes and dry erase and dots also has very practical significance, which is very important. To a certain extent, he enriched and developed the brush and ink expression methods of Yuan Dynasty landscape paintings, and thus established Wang Meng's position in Yuan Dynasty paintings.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Yuan Dynasty Painting