Now going out to take pictures for the requirements of photography technology is getting lower and lower, what exposure, focus, color grading and the like, with algorithms and program settings, almost can be easily done.
But why are there not many good photos taken?
One of the most important reasons is that the photographer will not compose the picture, will not make trade-offs, and there are too many elements in the photo.
You see, after cropping and removing some superfluous elements, is it much better?
This concise composition actually comes from ancient landscape paintings on the mainland.
The most typical representatives are Ma Yuan, who was mentioned last time, and Xia Gui's works that we will introduce today.
Xia Gui (夏桂), courtesy name Yuyu (禹玉), was a native of Qiantang (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang), and was a painter of the Song Dynasty and Emperor Lizong.
Xia Gui is similar to Ma Yuan's style, boldly cutting in composition, breaking through the formula of the panorama, focusing on the scene of the corners, so it is called "Summer Half".
In mainland art textbooks, they once described their composition as "reflecting the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty" - this is a typical "ZZ correct" statement.
In fact, the corner scenery of Ma and Xia is highly refined in art, highlighting the scenes with rich emotional colors, so that the picture scenes are blended with rich poetry, which is the development and enrichment of traditional landscape painting.
Let's take a look at Xia Gui's "Yanxiu Forest Residence Map".
《Smokey Forest Residence Map》
In this painting, there is an emptiness in the distance, and there are several light ink painted peaks on the left, giving way to the space on the right side of the picture, making people feel that the sky is vast and vast.
In contrast, the close-up scene is strong and inky, focusing on the key content in the lower left of the picture, focusing on depiction, which not only plays a role in guiding the vision and highlighting the key points, but also makes the picture virtual and real, dense and hierarchical, and plays a role in winning more with less, and simplifying the complex.
In fact, Xia Gui's composition was also influenced by Zen Buddhism, "advocating detachment from the implementation of the phase and understanding of nature", tending to be short and far-reaching, and the appearance of the gods.
After his cutting and selection, the ordinary landscape instantly rises a notch, constructing different moods and scenes.
Let's take a look at his "West Lake Willow Boat Map".
《West Lake Willow Boat Map》
About two-fifths of the upper part of the painting is left blank, and the "zigzag" shape of the willow causeway scenery is condensed in three-fifths of the length. In these three-fifths, the willows and water pavilions depicting the embankment of the West Lake are highlighted, the middle scene is dotted with tourists in the car, and the long view is transitioned by light ink and willow trees.
Such a simple picture naturally gives people a sense of tranquility and beauty, creating a smoky, elegant atmosphere, and also appears to be a long and far-reaching willow causeway, so that the limited canvas presents an infinite and vast space.
These are all worth learning from our photography.
In addition to composition, Xia Gui's ink painting technique is also very sophisticated, even better than Ma Yuan.
Ma Yuan uses his pen to be clear and exposed, Xia Gui uses his pen to be old, the ink is dripping, and the point scene characters are simple and complete, and the few strokes are very different.
Especially in the mountain stone method, Xia Gui often uses a bald pen with water and light ink to sweep and dye, and then use thick ink to take advantage of the wetness, resulting in the special effect of "dripping with vigor and ink attacking people", which is called dragging mud with water.
This can be evident in his surviving "Twelve Landscapes of Landscapes". (For long images, please view horizontally)
Twelve Landscapes of Landscapes
Painting mountains are used both and dyeing, ink and water blending, vividly.
Unfortunately, there are only four paintings in this set: "Distant HeavenLy Wild Goose", "Smoke Village Return", "Fishing Flute Quiet", and "Smoke Embankment Evening Berth", all of which are collected in the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in the United States.
Xia Gui's long scrolls are equally wonderful.
The National Palace Museum in Taipei has a "Qingyuan Map of Xishan Mountain", which is 46.5 centimeters high and 889.1 centimeters long, and depicts the beautiful and beautiful scenery of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
(High-energy warning: long roll is extremely long, mobile phone please watch horizontally)
《Qingyuan Map of Xishan Mountain》
I will no longer talk about such a long painting, but only remind everyone that the contrast between the near and far virtual reality of the whole painting is particularly well handled, which is comparable to the Northern Song Dynasty Wang Ximeng's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains".
Finally, I would like to say that although many people in our country do not know Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, since the monks brought the works of Ma and Xia to Japan at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, they directly inspired a large number of Japanese painters and thus created the Japanese ink painting school. These Japanese imitations have been brought to Europe and the United States, and have become the "model" for Westerners to understand Chinese landscape painting.
Therefore, if you look at the international influence, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui are incomparable in the history of Chinese art, which can also be regarded as "unintentional willow shading".
This article is a companion article to "Fun talk about the history of Chinese characters/calligraphy" and a series of articles on the history of Chinese art (tentative name). Every minute, harvest a lifetime of knowledge, you deserve it! Pay attention to the previous article, and prompt the update in time. Please indicate the source of the reprint, welcome to the publisher to contact me.