China Popular Itineraries |
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Ma Yuan (in the Song Dynasty) : Singing While Walking |
Ma Yuan, whose birth and death dates are unknown, was a painter of the South Song Dynasty. It was recorded that his active career was during the first part of the South Song Period. In 1190 - 1224, he worked as a secretary in the imperial painting academy. From his family he inherited a talent for painting; he was good at painting flowers, birds, figures as well as land-scapes. The landscapes around Zhejiang province became the subject matter of his paintings. Emulating the style and technique of Li Tang and other masters in landscape painting, he characterized his painting by forceful, vigorous and solemn strokes. The mountains drawn in axe-like dry brush and ink appear high and precipitous, the rocks hard, the trees full of branches as stiff as curved iron. A strong visual effect is achieved by the use of empty space to set off the central focus of the picture and to highlight the grandeur of the moun-tains and rivers. His paintings look simple, beautiful and poetic. He brought the ink paintings since the Later Tang Dynasty to full perfection.
Singing While Walking (picture No. 12, see p. 682), 191. 8cm¡Á 105.5cm, on silk, is now kept in Beijing Palace Museum. This is a landscape painting overflowing with an atmosphere of singing and dancing in celebration d peace. Several old farmers who are a bit tipsy are singing while walking a-long a peaceful, winding path by the brook, on both sides of which stand huge rocks and varied trees. In the distance, peculiar peaks tower into the clouds, centuries-old trees shoot up to the sky while gate towers appear indistinctly. The picture presents a special perception of remoteness and emptiness. The outlines and structure of the rocks were drawn first in thin but rigid lines, then in lines with axe-like brush and side brush. He put more strength into the starting brush and less into the finishing ones, leaving natural space be-tween the strokes. As for the distant peaks, they were first outlined and then washed in light ink without obscuring the lines. His painting technique is sim-ilar to that of works in the Later Tang Dynasty but has more rigidity. With his refined skills, he has created a land of peace, harmony and poetry. |
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