Jing Hao
Jing Hao | |
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Born | c. 855 Northern Landscape style |
Jing Hao (
Life and career
Jing Hao began his artistic career during the later years of the
In his writings, Jing described cun fa as a way of allowing the heart to follow after the brush. He wrote, “The image is to be seized without hesitation, so that the representation does not suffer. If the ink is too rich, it loses its expressive quality; if too weak in tone, it fails to achieve a proper vigour.” In other words, he sought to allow denser forms to take shape spontaneously out of the ink wash, like rocky crags jutting forth from misty basins. This embrace of spontaneity is readily apparent in his surviving works, such as Mount Lu.
Noted works
Despite his influence on the course of Northern Chinese painting, few works produced by Jing Hao have survived to the present day, and those that have are in poor condition. The piece most frequently held as a template of his style is Mount Lu, an ink painting on silk scroll which gives a rather fantastical rendering of one of Jiangxi's natural landmarks.[2] The work is a tight, vertical composition, employing Jing's newly developed cun fa technique to compress the landscape into layers of jutting rock-pillars between chasms of mist. The enclosed space of the composition enhances the monumental characteristics of the mountain, which fills some 90% of the scroll. Humans and buildings, though drawn with remarkable realism in a manner that contrasts sharply against the atmospheric landscape surrounding, are reduced to an almost unnoticeable scale, clustered at the foot of the mountain at the very bottom of the scroll, further conveying the intimidating grandeur of the natural world over the transient activities of man. Scholars have noted, however, that the mist in Mount Lu plays only a minimal role compared with that seen in some of Jing's other works, being employed much more conservatively than is common for the artist—a fact which has led to some speculation among art historians that this particular work may represent a “reminiscence” during a later period in the artist's life.
Aside from Mount Lu, only one other major surviving work bearing the signature of Jing Hao has survived into the present. Travellers in Snow-Covered Mountains was recovered during the excavation of a tomb, and is currently exhibited in the
Bifa Ji
Although admired as an artist during his own time and beyond, Jing Hao achieved his greatest fame as a theoretician, and it was during his seclusion in the
In Bifa Ji, which is written as a narrative, Jing Hao's theories on art are presented in a fictional conversation he has with an old man he meets on a road while wandering in the mountains. The old man, a sage, gives the artist a lecture, in which he describes five underlying essentials of painting: the first is spirit, the second rhythm, the third thought, the fourth scenery, the fifth brush, and finally the sixth, ink. Art historians have pointed out that these are almost certainly intended as a counterargument to the “six principles” of the famous pre-
After describing each of the six essentials in turn, the sage then takes a further step which will lay the foundation for the
Influence on later artists
Jing Hao's theories on art provided the foundation for much of what was to come during the later
See also
- Fan Kuan
- Li Cheng
- Xiang Rong
- Xie He
- Chinese art
- History of Chinese art
- Tang Dynasty painting
- List of Chinese painters
Notes
- ^ Barnhart, pg. 93.
- ^ Some scholars debate whether the work was actually painted by Jing Hao - Barnhart, pg. 93.
- ^ "Jing Hao and Guan Tong" Archived 2009-11-29 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Barnhardt, Richard M.; Xin, Yang; Congzheng, Nie; Chaill, James; Shaojun, Lang; Wu, Hung (2002). Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09447-3(Paperback).
- Hay, Jonathan (2008). Travellers in Snow-Covered Mountains: A Reassessment. Orientations Magazine. Volume 39, Number 8. November/December 2008. Hong Kong.
- ISBN 9780520218765(Paperback).
- Watson, William (2003). The Arts of China 900-1620. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09835-8(Paperback).