Last time, when I talked about "Tsevi Tu", the author of this painting, Li Tang, is also a legendary figure.
It can be said that the painting academy of the Southern Song Dynasty was his own milk, and the "Four Families of the Southern Song Dynasty" who enjoyed the history of painting were counted by himself, and the remaining three liu songnian, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui were all his disciples.
Of course, Li Tang's legendary life is not only about this, but also listen to me slowly.
Li Tang was born in 1066 (the third year of the Northern Song Dynasty), a native of Sancheng, Heyang (present-day Mengzhou, Henan).
He initially made a living selling paintings in the market. After Emperor Huizong of Song came to power, he expanded the enrollment quota of the Hanlin Painting Academy and conducted the entrance examination with the theme of poetry.
In order to mix an iron rice bowl, Li Tang took the exam. At that time, the examination topic of his session was "Selling Restaurants by the Bamboo Lock Bridge", Li Tang started from the "virtual" place, did not focus on depicting the restaurant, and in the depths of the bamboo forest by the Xiaoxi Bridge, a wine curtain was obliquely picked out, which was exactly in line with the deep meaning of "Bamboo Lock", this artistic technique of "exposing its essentials and hiding its fullness" made Song Huizong greatly appreciated, personally circled the dot as the first place, Li Tang became a full-time painter of the Hanlin Painting Academy as he wished.
Due to the long-term market polishing, Li Tang's basic skills are very solid, and the subject matter he can paint is also very extensive, in a word, his business ability is excellent, so he was soon promoted to the highest position of the painter of the academy: to be commanded.
Li Tangwanwan, who thought that he could grow old in the painting academy from now on, did not expect that due to the riotous operation of Emperor Huizong of Song and his favorite cai jing and others, jin soldiers were led to go south and attack the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.
This year is known in history as the "Shame of Jingkang", and Li Tang, 62 years old, was abducted by Jin Bing along with other colleagues of the Academy of Painting and sent to the capital of the Jin Dynasty, Shangjing Huining Province (present-day Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province).
Perhaps Jin Bing let down his guard when he saw that Li Tang was an old man, and was given the opportunity to escape by Li Tang.
Li Tang heard that Zhao Zhuo had established the Southern Song Dynasty for Emperor Gaozong on the throne at Lin'an, so he disregarded his old age and frailty and went south.
While passing through the Taihang Mountains, Li Tang was captured by the King of the Mountains. When the thieves inspected Li Tang's luggage, they found that it was full of pastel brushes and no oil.
The leader who happened to be in charge of this robbery was named Xiao Zhao, who was also a painter, but he was forced to make a living. As a peer and knowing Li Tang's great name, Xiao Zhao privately found Li Tang and asked Li Tang to accept himself as an apprentice, and he let Li Tang go south with him.
If he could escape with one life and take care of multiple disciples all the way, why would Li Tang not want to?
So the two took advantage of the dark night to escape the Taihang Mountains and continue south.
When Li Tang arrived at Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, he was 80 years old, and he and his disciple Xiao Zhao had also spent all their savings, had no money to make some relations, and could only sell paintings in the street market.
Falling to this point, Li Tang was also ashamed to use his real name, and only wrote a poem to sigh: "Yunli Yancun Yuli Beach, look at it as easy as it is difficult, early know that it is not in the eyes of the people, buy more rouge painting peonies." ”
But after all, those who go south have a lot of old history. Soon, a painting of Li Tang fell into the hands of Tai wei Shao Hongyuan, who took a closer look and exclaimed, "This is Li Tang's painting, Li Tang has come to an end!" Immediately sent people to look for it, and at the same time told Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty that because the Zhao royal family had a tradition of loving calligraphy and painting, and in order to whitewash the Taiping, the Southern Song Court decided to reopen the painting academy. It's just that everything is in ruins, and there is no one who can hold the field to lead the painting academy. Now that Li Tang has been discovered, whether it is seniority or skill, it is the best choice - this is a good opportunity to share the worries of the emperor and recommend talents, can Shao Hongyuan not work hard?
As a result, Li Tang returned to the academy in the year of the old [mao] [die], and served as the academy with the title of Cheng Zhonglang, becoming the Taishan Beidou of the Southern Song Dynasty Painting Academy.
After Li Tang took office, he found that there was not even a single ancient painting in the academy, and the painters could not find the work if they wanted to copy it. Therefore, on the one hand, Li Tang personally painted and demonstrated, and on the other hand, proposed a new painting method of "no ancient law" and "lack of ancient meaning".
Just as the so-called "unbroken and undefined", the land has been lost, the people have suffered a lot, and at the same time, it has also stimulated the artists' sense of innovation. Under the leadership of Li Tang, a new generation of painting in the Southern Song Dynasty was opened!
Li Tang himself also created the "Great Axe Splitting" on his best landscape paintings, which were hard in stone, strong in three-dimensionality, and the landscape was vigorous and simple, and the momentum was majestic, which set a precedent for the Southern Song Dynasty.1
Li Tang's representative work was the first to promote the "Wind Map of Wanyuan Pine".
"Wind Map of Ten Thousand Pines" by Li Tang
Li Tang's "Wind Map of Wanyuan Pine" is colored on silk, 188.7 cm in length and 139.8 cm in width, and is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
This painting is the work of Li Tangnanduqian. The picture of the mountain peaks are high, the pine forests are dense, the waterfalls are singing, the turns are pouring, and the majesty of nature is coming.
In terms of composition, Li Tang highlights the main peak, simplifies the landscape and creates a sense of oppression.
In terms of brushwork, he integrated the techniques of Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guo Xi, and used a variety of methods to express different stone textures, hills and cliffs, as if the axe had just been chiseled.
Rigid lines, rapid setbacks, and strong brushstrokes all show his love for the northern landscape and his strong sense of restoration.
This "Wind Map of Wanyuan Pine", together with Guo Xi's "Early Spring Map" and Fan Kuan's "Journey to Xishan", is collectively known as the "Three Masterpieces of Song Painting", and is the top collection of Song paintings in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
It should be noted that the painter Juran of the Five Dynasties period also has a "Wind Map of Ten Thousand Valleys", which is very different from Li Tang's style, and you can compare it.
"Ten Thousand Pine Wind Map" is a huge work
In addition to "Ce Wei Tu" and "Ten Thousand Pine Wind Maps", Li Tang's surviving works also include "Village Doctor Map", "Jin Wen Gong Restoration Map", "Qingxi Yu Hidden Map", "Changxiajiang Temple Map", "Smoke Temple Pine Wind Map", etc., quite a lot, I will not explain them one by one.
《Village Doctor Diagram》
"Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map"
《Map of Changxiajiang Temple》
The new painting style of the Southern Song Dynasty pioneered by Li Tang, through the efforts of Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan, Xia Gui and others, became the most representative "courtyard body" of the Song Dynasty, and its exquisite and elegant rhyme left an immortal position in the history of Chinese painting.
This article is a series of articles on the history of Chinese calligraphy, which only takes 1 minute a day to get a lifetime of artistic literacy. Please pay attention to the previous articles to get more interesting knowledge and prompt updates in time. Please indicate the source of the reprint, welcome to the publisher to contact me.