Shen Zhou
Shen Zhou (1427-1509), courtesy name Qinan, was a native of Ishida, Baishiweng, Yutiansheng, and Youzhuju, a native of Changzhou (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu). Shen Zhou, who specialized in poetry, calligraphy and painting, was the founder of the "Wu School" of literati painting in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and was known as the "Ming Four Families" together with Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying. His works include "Lushan Gaotu", "Qiulin Dialect Old Map", "Cangzhou Fun Map", "Ishida Collection", "Guest News" and so on. Shen Zhou's unique painting ideas influenced his artistic creation, thus cultivating artists with great influence such as Wen Zhengming and Tang Yin.
Shen Zhou, like many artists, attaches great importance to learning the methods of the ancients. Because his grandfather, uncle, and father all loved calligraphy and painting, Shen Zhou began to learn the art of calligraphy from his fathers from a young age. It has superior conditions that ordinary people do not have. And Shen Zhou learned from the ancients had their own learning methods.
First, do not blindly follow the ancients, pay attention to their own experience, constantly summarize, and form their own unique learning methods. For example, he studied Dong Ju and yuanren calligraphy, strictly grasped the direction and change of his pen and ink, and seriously tasted the "nature" of landscapes in the pen and ink of the ancients, so as to properly express the landscape.
Second, there is a directional copy, and perseverance to forge ahead. Shen Zhou believed that "painting things" were difficult to use landscapes, and he admired Dong Ju and Wu Zhen's paintings to produce a fascinating high leisure and clear wonder. Until his later years, he still carefully followed Wu Zhen's pen and ink. In learning from the "Yuan Sijia", Shen Zhou most admired Wu Zhen. He believes that from the perspective of the extension of Dong Ju's painting style, Wang Mengfan, Ni Zhan is simple, and Huang Gongwang is majestic, and it should be Wu Zhen who is closer to Dong Ju in terms of ink brushwork, and Wu Zhen has not left many works. Shen Zhou studied according to Liu Yulin's work "Luanke Chuan Color Map", and Shen Zhou studied Wu Zhen not truthfully, but made a trade-off, which came from Shen Zhou's aesthetic standards. For example, Shen Zhou also went to the field to investigate the "Imitation of Wu Zhonggui Yunquan's Proud Long Scroll" and then studied Wu Zhen's intention according to subjective choice.
It can be seen from this that Shen Zhou practiced the ancients with direction and selectively.
On Shen Zhou's artistic path, he has always organically combined rational beauty with sensual beauty. From Shen Zhou's works, we can appreciate his fresh breath reflecting the great rivers and mountains of the motherland and his strong personal feelings in this regard. For example, in the "Shen Zhou Landscape and Water Wonderful Album", Shen Zhou wrote to himself: "Today's painters all imitate the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but they can't understand it." Yu Yu dreamed deeply, and was a disciple who entered the room, and Yu did not cross his barriers. This book claims to be essential, according to the rules and methods, the original call is natural, every water and stone are seen by the ears and eyes, and its brilliance is remembered, and when it is written, it is concentrated on thinking, intending to be the first of the pen, the so-called more cannot be reduced, less is insurmountable, and it is really thin and gained. "Emulating the Song and Yuan dynasties was an inevitable practice of many painters in the Ming Dynasty. However, in the "Shenzhou Landscape and Water Wonderful Works", it not only carries forward the rules and methods of the famous Masters of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but also shows his personality of attaching himself to nature, and the combination of the two is better, and he is humbled as "thin and gained". In the specific creative process, Shen Zhou also embodies the painting idea of combining the two. He said that "concentrating on thinking, intending to write first", means that as a painter, you must not blindly write, but should fully understand and understand the charm and characteristics of natural landscapes, and then write out the natural landscape hidden in your chest, which is the so-called "intention to write first". In Shen Zhou's works, it can be seen that he regards ancient law as an ideal model for artistic creation, and in the process of emphasizing nature, he has never forgotten the rules of ancient law.
In shen zhouzhong's later years, his painting ideas have changed, and his subjective emotions have been strengthened, such as the works "Lushan Tu" and "Huang Ju Dangui Tu", which are not obtained from natural sketches, but are imitations of ancient works, as well as the combination of landscapes, flowers and grass entities hidden in his chest. After Shen Zhou was 45 years old, due to the maturity of painting ideas and the increase in going out to play, he realized the true meaning of many arts in nature, the true feelings in the works were more important than the real scene, and the subjectivity of the painter was more vivid, rich, lively and diverse than the objectivity to be reflected. It is precisely this continuous change and improvement of aesthetic concepts and creative emotions that can make Shen Zhou's later works, especially landscape paintings, more subjective. As he himself said: "I am stupid and planted, and I can steal the drawing machine with a pen." Tomorrow the small window sits alone, and the spring breeze is full of this heart. Drama pen this book, with the shape of things, talk about the pleasure of living in a good place, if you ask me for painting, I am outside of Danqing. "The divine will is formless and depends on the expression of the form. Form is the foundation of God. Through the shape of the picture to express the divine will, that is, "with the shape of things" and "beyond Danqing". Shen Zhou's painting ideas are expressed in the relationship between form and god, from which his subjectivity is highlighted. Thus, in his pictorial thought, subjectivity takes precedence over objectivity.
Shen Zhou's paintings made two major contributions to traditional landscape painting: First, it integrated the south into the north, carrying forward the tradition of literati painting. For example, Shen Zhou's thick brush landscape melts into the strength and hardness of the Zhejiang school with the pen, and the hills and ravines add the momentum and bone of the guards. The vastness of the Southern Song Dynasty is integrated with the magnificent and clear essence of the Northern Sect, and the emotions expressed by it have also changed from quiet and cold to grand and peaceful. Second, the poetry, calligraphy and painting are further combined. Shen Zhou's calligraphy huang tingjian, the style of calligraphy "Qijin Qikun", is very similar to his landscape painting Cang Jin Hou, very similar to, harmonious. He also applied the calligraphy method of carrying the wrist and the pen to painting. Shen Zhou was also a poet at the same time, and in his old age, he was "frustrated and full of old age". He combined this poetic style with the painting style, so that the paintings he made were more poetic.