Wei Yan
He was another famous horse painter in the Tang Dynasty whose reputation was almost similar to that of Cao Ba and Han Gan.
Wei Yan, a carp. It can be found in the Book of Tang Dynasty Yiwen Zhi, the Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties, the Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty, the Records of Pictures and Heards, the Xuanhe Pictorial Notation, the Catalogue of Famous Paintings of Yizhou, the Collection of Du Gongbu, the History of Haiyue Paintings, and the Guangchuan Paintings. Combined with what is said. He was a native of Jingzhao (Chang'an) and lived in Shu. The year of birth and death is unknown, but the time of activity was around the xuanzong and suzong dynasties. He came from a family of painters, his father Wei Luan, who was good at painting landscapes and pine stones; his uncle Wei Jian, who was good at painting dragon horses, was a wonderful situation, so the history of painting said that he could pass on his family. In his paintings, Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" said, "Gonghua Shui, High Monk Qishi, Old Pine Stone, Pen Strength, Style Exalted", describing his works as "a thousand miles away, a diamond shadow of Xiao Ke, a thin smoke, a wind and rain, a wheel in the shape of a cover, like the shape of a dragon", and his father has achieved far more. He is also good at drawing horses, cattle, sheep, etc., and is especially good at drawing horses.
His horse was most praised by Tang Zhu Jingxuan. The "Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty" says that he said, "When he is idle, he often dots the kurama horses and figures with yue pens", and his works are not only "mountains and rivers and clouds, ever-changing", the horses he paints "or teng, or leaning, or carcasses, or drinking, or startling, or stopping, or walking, or rising, or warping, or pods", "its small one, or the first point, or the tail"; "the mountain is inked, the water is wiped by hand, the song is as wonderful as it is, as if it were true", then he knows that he is good at painting the horses, expressing various situational dynamics, and then matching the clever landscapes and trees and stones to create a large natural scene like the real situation It also refers to him as "also having the goodness of the Qilin and the ornamentation of the Painting of The Horn, which is ingenious and exquisite", which means that he also paints individual close-up horses, which are cleverly exquisitely painted, and are recommended to be "the horses of Han Gan". The poet Du Fu greatly admired his painting skills, and his paintings of horses included "Inscription Mural Horse Song", shiyun "Wei Hou bei I have some adaptation, know that I pity the king to paint invincible." Playing with the bald pen to sweep the horse, he saw the unicorn out of the east wall. A horse of grass and a horse hissed, sitting and watching the frost hooves of a thousand miles. Time is too good to be true, and to live and die with others. There is also the title of "Drama for the Song of Double Pines" inscribed on his painting of pine trees, and there are "Several people in the world paint ancient pines, and Bi Hong has been old and Wei Yan is young." The long wind of the pen is slender, and the hall is full of colors and sounds. Two plants are tragically cracked with moss bark, and the flex iron staggers back into the tall branches. The white destroyed the decaying bone dragon and tiger died, and the black fell into the yin and thunderstorm. "It can be known that when he was alive, he was also known for his exquisite landscape and pine stones and horses, and MaZhong was particularly good at depicting the scenes of the life of the horses, and his pen and ink were wanton, and he was able to bend all kinds of emotional states, as if he were alive, thus winning a high reputation and the status of painting history.
Wei Yan's works have been handed down, and the Book of Tang And Yiwenzhi records that there are "Tianzhu Hu Monk Crossing the Water", "Grazing Map", and the Northern Song Dynasty "Xuanhe Painting Spectrum", which contains twenty-seven paintings in the collection of his paintings, including "Herding Centaur Map", "Three Ji Diagram", "Three Horse Diagram", "Mojiang Five Horse Diagram", "Herding Horse Diagram", "Scattered Horse Diagram", "Herding Cow Map", "Sand Cow Map", "Pastoral Herding Group Donkey Map", "Morning Travel Map", "Reading Stele Map", "Pine Stone Diagram", "MatsushiTa High Monk Map", etc., there are paintings of horses, cattle, donkeys, characters, etc., still with the theme of horses. The painting has been passed down to this day, and there is no only one piece of "Double Riding Diagram".
Tang Dynasty Wei Yan's "Double Riding Diagram" color 31× 44.5cm Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
This "Double Riding Diagram", now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, is a frame in the volume "Merlin Excellence", painted on silk, 31 cm high and 44.5 cm wide, with color painting method. The content painting of two people riding horses and waving a whip galloping, the posture of the centaurs is strange and vivid, but the pen and ink are not similar to the Tang style, but the pen line is thick and heavy, and the image can be mastered vividly, and it seems that it should be a facsimile of posterity.
However, in addition to this surviving work with the only inscription Wei Yan, among the existing ancient paintings, there is a work copied by others, and it is from the handwriting of a famous artist, and the facsimile must have a high degree of authenticity, which can be used to understand the morphology of the original painting, that is, the shape of Wei Yan's painting.
Northern Song Dynasty Li Gonglin's "G Wei Yan Mu Fang Map" is colored in the collection of the Palace Museum
Swipe left and right to explore the larger image
This work is titled "Li Gonglin G Wei Yan Mu Fang Tu", which is now in the Palace Museum. The painting is hand-rolled, silk, height 46.2 cm, length 429.8 cm, color painting method.
Northern Song Dynasty Li Gonglin's "G Wei Yan Pastoral Map" part
The Tang Dynasty advocated martial arts and armaments, attached great importance to horse breeding, and set up a shayuan supervisor in shayuan in Shaanxi, engaged in raising a large number of good horses. The painting depicts part of the painting of a horse farm in Sand Garden. Between the endless flat slopes of sand and grass, the shepherds and horses are walking in a majestic way, the scene is magnificent, the weather is majestic; carefully counted, the whole map of Xi officials and people counts more than 140 people, about 1,200 large and small horses, such a voluminous painting work, it is a rare sight in the painting traces of painting horses in the past generations.
In the upper right corner of the painting, there is the small character inscription of the painter's seal book " Chen Li Gonglin Feng Shu Wei Yan Mu Fang Tu", as well as the inscription poem of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty; at the back of the volume, there is the inscription of Ming Taizu, as well as the seal of the public and private collection of successive dynasties, indicating that it is a famous relic that has been circulated for a long time. This painting, from the perspective of painting performance, is complex in composition and magnificent; the costumes, utensils, and horse painting methods of the figures are in line with what is seen in some Tang paintings, which is obviously in line with the characteristics of Tang Dynasty painting; and the posture of the painted horses varies in a variety of ways, including running, chasing, tumbling, getting up, drinking, playing, etc., and so on, all of which are sufficient and vivid, completely in line with the above-mentioned painting history records to describe the characteristics of Wei Yanshan's painting of horses; especially the dense and orderly composition of the scroll, the momentum is connected, and the pen of the centaur painting method is smooth.
Although this picture scroll is a facsimile, but such a complex and numerous images of centaurs, if there is no profound attainment in painting horses, It is difficult to do, Li Gonglin is not only one of the people and horses painting in the history of Chinese painting in the Song Dynasty, so I believe that only he has this skill, but also believes that with his skills, he will be able to convey the spirit of the original painting; the imitator is so rare, then the creator of the original painting is even more unique, I believe it must be Wei Yan's work. Therefore, the world can see Wei Yan's authentic handwriting through this facsimile, and can fully appreciate his extraordinary artistic achievements.