The representative of literati paintings in the Ming Dynasty - Shen Zhou
Shen Zhou, whose courtesy name was Qi Nan, also known as Shitian, later known as Bai Shiweng, also known as Yutian Weng, and known as Mr. Baishi, was a famous painter in the mid-Ming Dynasty. Painter, founder of Wumen School of Painting. He was born in 1427 and died in 1509. He was a native of Suzhou. The Shen family has lived in seclusion in Wumen for generations and lives in Xiangcheng, Suzhou. Shen Zhou's great-grandfather was a good friend of Wang Meng, and his father Hengji was also a student of Du Qiong. Calligraphy and painting are the origins of family learning. Both his father and uncle were famous in his hometown for their poetry, calligraphy and painting. Shen Zhou spent his whole life studying at home, reciting poetry and painting, and traveling in forests and springs. He pursued spiritual freedom and despised the dirty political reality. He never took the imperial examination and was always engaged in calligraphy and painting creation. He is knowledgeable and rich in collecting. He had wide acquaintances and was highly popular, and he was usually very approachable. People who asked for calligraphy and paintings were "all over the place", and "traffickers and muju" asked him for paintings, and they never refused. Some people even made fake copies of his works and asked for inscriptions, and he readily agreed. There was a man named Cao Taishou. After the new house was completed, he wanted to paint the courtyard. He searched for painters. Shen Zhou was also among them. He went to take pictures. Shen Zhou said: "Don't scare my old mother. I don't dare to paint it day and night." The guest was quite upset and said: "The prefect doesn't know. Sir, why are you here? Don't go there if you are thirsty." Shen Zhou replied: "It is a right thing to do in the past. It is a shame to ask for exemption." Shen Zhou's calligraphy and painting are widely circulated. Mixed and difficult to distinguish. Wen Zhengming therefore called him a "man among the gods" who was far away from the world.
Shen Zhou played a leading role in the field of literati painting since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. He was a calligrapher, Huang Tingjian, who was particularly accomplished in painting. He also painted landscapes, flowers and birds, as well as figures, and his outstanding achievements were in landscapes, flowers and birds. Some of his landscape paintings depict mountains and rivers, expressing the three distant views of traditional landscape paintings. Most of the works describe southern landscapes and garden scenes, expressing the leisurely life of the literati at that time. In terms of painting techniques, Shen Zhou inherited his family education in his early years and also studied under Du Qiong. Later, he gained advantages from others and worked in various schools of Song and Yuan Dynasties. He mainly inherited the ink and wash system of Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Huang Gongwang, Wang Meng and Wuzhen of the Yuan Dynasty. He also referred to the pen and ink of Li, Liu, Ma and Xia Jinjian of the Southern Song Dynasty, integrated it thoroughly, and used both hard and soft to form a new style of thick ink, which is unique. Shen Zhou mostly painted small paintings in his early years, and began to work on large paintings after the age of 40. In his middle age, his painting methods were rigorous and detailed, his brushwork was calm and vigorous, and his strength was the best. In his later years, his brushwork was simple and bold, with strong momentum.
Shen Zhou’s paintings have comprehensive skills and simple skills. He has his own creations based on learning from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. He developed the expression techniques of literati ink and freehand landscape, flower and bird painting, and became the leader of Wumen School of Painting. . Most of Shen Zhou's representative works are now collected in major museums, and the Palace Museum has exquisite works. Important ones include the scroll of "Imitation of Dong Ju's Landscape" (composed in the ninth year of Chenghua, 1473 AD), the volume of "Cangzhou Interesting Pictures", and "Cangzhou Interesting Pictures". "Picture of Zuyi", "Picture of Mocai" (these two pictures were originally album pages and were later combined into a volume), "Picture of Woyou", etc. The Nanjing Museum also has several exquisite paintings by Shen Zhou, including "Dongzhuang Picture" and "Peony" scroll, which were painted in 1506, when Shen Zhou was 81 years old. The Liaoning Museum has two masterpieces by Shen Zhou. One is "Appreciating Chrysanthemums in a Pot", which shows trees, rocks and thatched pavilion. In the pavilion, three people are drinking and admiring chrysanthemums. The mood is leisurely, the layout is sparse, and the scenery is pleasant. The other is the "Smoke River Overlapping Mountains" volume, which was painted in the second year of Zhengde (1507). The use of brush and ink is arbitrary and full of smoke. It is truly a masterpiece of Shen Zhou in his later years when he was 82 years old.
In addition, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan also has a scroll of Shen Zhou's famous "High Picture of Mount Lu". If you can see these works with your own eyes, you can not only get excellent artistic enjoyment, but also understand the characteristics of Shen Zhou's paintings, which will help distinguish authenticity.
Wen Zhengming (1470-1559) was the most famous painter and great calligrapher in the mid-Ming Dynasty. In the history of painting, he is ranked alongside Shen Zhou, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, collectively known as the "Four Masters of the Wu Clan". He was extremely famous in his time and was known as "whose writing style is all over the world". In the early Ming Dynasty, Wen Zheng was named Bi, also known as Zhengzhong, and his nickname was Hengshan. He was from Changzhou (Suzhou), Jiangsu Province. He is the second master of the Wu sect. Although he followed Shen Zhou, he still had his own style. He specializes in many things, including green, ink, fine brushwork, and freehand brushwork. From the Zhengde (Wuzong Zhu Houzhao) to Jiajing (Sejong Zhu Houzhao) years, according to statistics in the book "History of Wumen Painting", there were 876 Wu School painters. Some of them didn't want to be officials at all, and some wanted to be officials but hit a wall (for example, Wen Zhengming once went to Beijing to be an official, with very unhappy results), and most of them lived a noble life