An artist once in a thousand years
The "unlucky" emperor that everyone laments
Text | Yi Gongzi
Source | The History of Chinese Art
In terms of painting, landscapes, flowers and birds, figures, Zhao Tuo is omnipotent and exquisite, and also pioneered the form of poetry, calligraphy and painting;
Poetry, Calligraphy, Painting and Printing: Zhao Tuo's "Furong Jinji Diagram"
But these are not the most important.
The greatest achievement of his life is that with the power of the king of a country, he has driven the development of the artistic atmosphere of the entire country.
He founded the Xuanhe Academy of Painting (equivalent to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts), and served as his own dean, selecting outstanding artistic seedlings in the folk. We are still very familiar with Zhang Zeduan, who painted the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty", and Wang Ximeng, who painted the "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", all of whom are considered to be his protégés.
Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" (partial)
Wang Ximeng's "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" (partial)
This Royal Academy of Fine Arts can be said to be "no ancients before, no one after".
There is not only sufficient financial support, but also a strict talent echelon construction. First of all, Zhao Tuo set up an examination system, and if he wanted to apply for the examination, the first level was to pass the examination of six subjects: Buddhism, Characters, Landscape, Birds and Beasts, Flowers and Bamboo, and Wooden Houses. This ensures the quality of the trainees to a large extent.
Representative of Xuanhe Painting Academy Li Tang's work "Cevi Tu"
Moreover, Emperor Huizong of Song would personally write the exam questions. This question is not simple at all, for example:
Please draw a painting according to the seven words "stepping on the flowers and returning to the horseshoe incense", requiring a lively writing and unlimited subject matter, except for poetry.
Stepping on flowers, returning, horseshoes, all good painting.
fragrant? How to draw incense?
This is a great embarrassment to the world's readers.
The last painting that stands out is the use of butterfly chases to express the fragrance, turning the invisible into the tangible.
Of course, students are not admitted to the exam and everything will be fine. After entering the academy, he also had to study various painting professional courses and cultural classes such as "Analects" and "Mencius". Then, according to the results of study and work, the painters of the academy will be divided into many grades. This position is not yet a lifelong system, you need to participate in the assessment regularly, and constantly fight monsters and upgrade.
Strict assessment also means generous treatment. The most glorious thing is that you can even get the guidance of Song Huizong by hand!
Once, a painter painted a peacock rising mound, that is, a peacock wanted to go to the mound, and how to paint Song Huizong was not satisfied. Finally the painter asked him why, and he said, your foot is wrong, the peacock rises on the pier, and the first step is the left foot.
It can be seen that Song Huizong, the dean of the Academy of Fine Arts, is not in vain, he must have spent a lot of time and carefully observed nature to have such a comment.
Moreover, he is not rigidly and simply depicting nature, and his paintings still have the interest of the literati.
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For example, this painting is now in the "Ruihe Tu" of the Liaoning Provincial Museum.
Zhao Tuo's "Ruihe Diagram" (partial)
This is a bold attempt in the history of Chinese painting.
Emperor Huizong of Song let the viewer stand in the clouds and look at the cranes from a parallel perspective. He boldly let the flying cranes fill the sky, and the twenty cranes did their best, and none of them were the same.
Although this is a still picture, we can clearly feel the momentum. From the bottom, the rise of the clouds, to the flow of the crane on its back at the right end of the picture, and then to the flying dynamic line of these eighteen cranes. Not only is there a uniform and coherent sense of potential in the large structure, but there are also changes in local details, and then at the left end of the crane standing, a flowing closed loop is completed.
Song Huizong's painting of the crane really worked hard. He spent a long time observing the cranes, the details of their movements, and even the orientation of their paws.
The famous art historian James Cahill had this to say:
This may be the last opportunity in the history of Chinese painting to seriously push forward the standard of artistic authenticity; literati critics do not seek to be similar, and once their theories have prevailed, they will reduce the consideration of accurate reproduction to the secondary level.
This "Crane Drawing" is a painting that combines natural sketching, divine brilliance and imperial magnificence, and some people even say that it completed the expression of surrealism hundreds of years earlier than the West. And we must know that this is just an improvisation in Song Huizong's artistic career.
As the dean of an art academy, he can not only cultivate talents, but also pass his own skills, and he has done a good job.
But Zhao Tuo still felt that it was not enough.
"What's so great about Ji Dacheng, I, still have to be groundbreaking!"
So we saw a font that had never been seen before and never came after: thin gold body.
When he was 23 years old, Zhao Tuo wrote the "Thin Gold Body Thousand Character Text" - the emergence of this font completely subverted the rules of calligraphy of his predecessors.
The predecessors paid attention to the introverted Tibetan feng, and Song Huizong said: No!
He completely released the sharpness in the words, every stroke was as sharp as a sword, giving people the feeling of a strong personality full of "bending iron and breaking gold".
Zhao Tuo's "Thin Gold Body Thousand Character Text" (partial)
But are sharp and ethereal necessarily mutually exclusive brothers? Song Huizong said: No!
Zhao Tuo's Inscription Poem "Lamei Mountain Fowl Diagram" (Partial)
We look closely at each of his words, whether horizontal or vertical, there is a certain arc.
It is precisely because of the curvature that the calligraphy has a kind of elasticity, coupled with delicate brushstrokes, the overall look can be "beautiful and beautiful".
Song Huizong made the thin gold body into his own icon in this way, and to this day, no one in the calligraphy world has ever done this to him.