In the previous series of articles, we have read Zhao Zhichen's side of "Immortal Dependents", and this time we read the seal of Zhao Zhichen again, which is this side of "Yunzhu":
(Zhao Zhichen "Yunzhu")
Let me start with two digressions:
The "Huizong" in the north developed to a late stage, and a controversial seal engraver Xu Sangeng appeared. In fact, the development of the "Zhejiang Sect" in the south to the late stage, there was also a controversial seal engraver, that is, Zhao Zhichen, who ranked seventh in the "Eight Houses of Xiling", and it is generally believed that the problem of Zhao Zhichen's seal engraving is that the Zhejiang school developed into his hands and gradually moved towards "stylization", and he "deliberately showed the marks of axe chisels, the jagged swallowtail, the same, and the Zhejiang school program has tended to shell" (Li Gangtian's "Seal Engraving").
Zhao Zhichen is of course a great artist, and his calligraphy and paintings are worth mentioning, otherwise posterity would not have given him such a high status in the art world, and he would not have won the favor of so many contemporary celebrities (a large number of his prints are works that should be asked for, and they are rich in gold).
(Zhao Zhichen's painting)
In fact, art appreciation has always been "each flower into each eye", there is no distinction between superior and inferior, superior and inferior, right or wrong, because it has a strong subjectivity. We do not make a final comment on Zhao Zhichen's seal carving, we only look at his works.
In addition, Zhao Zhichen received more criticism, and another reason is that his works are too many, and most of them are works of social interaction, and in commercial works, a large number of similar content appears "formulaic" is helpless, after all, an artist's energy is also limited, and the artist also wants to live, and it is understandable to earn money.
Speaking of corrections, this time we will focus on the "square" and "circle" elements in this work and seriously consider their value.
When we arranged the ancient seal homework before, we have already mentioned the comprehensive use in one of the seal engraving works, in fact, here is the old tune. Square and circle are a pair of dialectical concepts:
The square is static, it is quiet, stable; the circle is dynamic, it flows, it is active; the square is upright, straight, it is masculine; the circle is curved, curved, and it is full of feminine beauty. Blind "square" is too rigid and rigid; blind "round" will tend to be soft and weak. (See humble text "Square" and "Circle" in Seal Engraving Learning))
Chinese seal engraving is inseparable from the square circle, because the seal book is round, and the printing surface is square, square (the shape of the seal is never the square). Therefore, the perfect unity of the two elements of square and circle in the same square print is often a major problem that the creator of the seal engraving needs to consider. Wu Changshuo said: "It is not difficult to engrave the seal. It is difficult to be pure in the font, the dense configuration, the distribution of vermilion and white, and the difference between square circles" (Preface to "Coupling Flower AnYincun"). Obviously, in the eyes of Master Wu Changshuo, the consideration of Fang and Yuan is also one of the important tasks of seal engraving.
Usually, the creation of two-character printing is relatively easy, because there are fewer things to consider, fewer contradictions that need to be dealt with, and the two words on the printing surface can find the support of the border of the printing surface up and down, and only need to consider the relationship between the two words. But relatively speaking, there are also difficulties, because the content is too simple, the elements that can be scheduled by the seal engraver are correspondingly reduced, and the opportunity for change is correspondingly reduced. Zhao Zhiqian, a genius seal engraver in the late Qing Dynasty, also suffered great pains because of the too few elements of the printing surface, saying in the edge of the "Tanfu" seal that "the seal is not easy to match, but seek its stability":
(Zhao Zhiqian's "Tanfu" and side paragraphs)
Zhao Zhichen's side of "Yunzhu" is also a two-character seal, so it also has difficulties in chapter law. In addition to the classical "wide-edged fine Zhu" (its superiority lies in the visual contrast between the wide-edged and fine-sided Zhu), Zhao Zhichen's solution to this problem is to make full use of "square" and "circle". See:
(Square and circle processed by two words in the printing surface)
The two characters on the printing surface, the word "cloud" is the upper and lower structure, processed into the upper circle below; the "Nagisa" character is the left and right structure, processed into the left circle and the right side. This is typical of "different squares and circles". The word "cloud" even in order to avoid the "square" in the upper part of the whole word, omits the top horizontal (with the top horizontal, the upper part of the "cloud" word becomes "square"); the "water" part of the "zhu" character uses the seal method of the book to deal with three points of water in order to seek circles, and although these three points are all "round", they have different postures.
In addition to the different circles of the single word, there are also single lines and the square circles of the "symmetrical position", as shown in the figure:
(The square circle of a single line and a "symmetrical position" is different)
The end of the two symmetrical arcs on the left and right sides of the "cloud" character "rain" is processed into one side and one circle (blue is square, yellow is round); the middle two horizontals are processed into one end square and one end is round; the two oblique pen ends of the "Person" part of the "Zhu" character are also processed into one side and one circle.
There is also a question, how do the left and right words on the printing surface achieve reunion? Yes, it is the echo of the diagonal similar strokes used, which is the echo and reunion method mentioned in our previous "Pudding Reading" series of articles.
(The beveled angle of similar strokes echoes the role of reunion)
With this set of echoes, the left and right words of the printing surface are closely united into a whole, no longer two parts separated, and they have become related.
Of course, this square seal also has a point worth mentioning, that is, the prominent effect of the three points of water of the word "Nagisa", these three points are "jumped" out, they are the prominent elements of the printing surface, they are completely different from other elements, and they are the "three points" with excellent effect.
([Pudding Reading] No. 123, some pictures from the Internet)