Five Dynasties southern Tang Zhou Wenzhi (biography) Song facsimile scroll in the palace (partial) silk color 28.3cm horizontal size unknown In the Cleveland Museum of Art (USA).
White painting was originally a manuscript created by ancient Chinese painters for painting, also known as chalk, and gradually evolved into an independent painting category, which is a kind of painting that is completely based on line for painting modeling, and fully expresses the shape, radiance, light color, volume and texture of objects. Because of the simple choice of objects and images, the picture pays more attention to the virtual reality of the lines and the dense contrast, so the white painting has the characteristics of simplicity, simplicity and clarity. In the history of Chinese painting, many painters famous for their white paintings, such as Gu Kaizhi, Wu Daozi, Wu Zongyuan, Li Gonglin, etc., have achieved extraordinary achievements. Zhou Wenji is also a generation of people known for their white paintings in the history of Chinese painting, and many famous white painting works have been preserved, such as "Heavy Screen Chess Diagram", "Post-Subjective Chess Diagram", "Palace Scroll", etc., all of which are relatively famous white painting works that have survived, of which "Palace Scroll" (Southern Song Dynasty Facsimile) is the white painting work that is closest to the original appearance of Zhou Wenju painting.
The original work of "Picture Scrolls in the Palace" no longer exists, and the currently seen is a facsimile of the Southern Song Dynasty, with a total of 3 paragraphs, which flowed overseas around 1947 and was stored in 3 different museums in the United States. The first section is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, USA, once titled "Lady Figure"; The second paragraph is titled "Diagram in the Palace", in the Fogg Museum of Harvard University, USA; The third section, titled "Spring Dawn in the Tang Palace", was originally a private collection in the United Kingdom and is now in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States. The Ming Dynasty Zhang Qiu's "Catalogue of Authentic Works", Qing Bian Yongyu's "Examination of Ancient Hall Calligraphy and Painting", and the modern Zheng Zhenduo's "Collection of Famous Paintings Since the Tang and Song Dynasties" have all been written on this, which shows that this painting is a painting work that has been circulated in an orderly manner.
The "Palace Map" volume in the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States has an inscription by Zhang Zheng, a resident of the Southern Song Dynasty, in the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140), which records the painting content of this painting, he said: "Zhou Wenjue's "Palace Map", dozens of women and children. A man writes about the gods, and the makeup, musical instruments, pots, chairs, parrots, and inuyasha butterflies are not related... The "Palace Map" cloud is the real handwriting, hiding the former Taifu Qing Song Zaijia, or copying a piece of gift. Madame High Bun, since Tang. This roll of plump muscles long skirt, Zhou Fangfa also. Yu zainan yu Duanxi Chen Gao family descendants, see his ancestral Tibetan emperor statues, left and right palace people comb buns, slightly the same, the two beards are made of big beards, hanging between the shoulders, although ugly but have a real state. The Li clan called themselves the Southern Tang Dynasty, so the clothes and crowns mostly used the Tang system, but the wind flowed to inherit the six dynasties. The painter argues about ancient paintings, when first asked for clothes and car uniforms, the cover is also said. ”
It is very clear that this painting is the situation of the daily life of the noble concubines and palace ladies of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Different scenes of daily activities were depicted in the picture by the painter, or the noble concubines engaged in clerical activities with female officials, or played silk bamboo, plucked the ruan piano, or sat and talked, or freshened up and looked at the mirror, dressed up, or took care of the prince, played and entertained... All kinds of inconsistencies write out the daily situation in the Southern Tang Palace. The lively innocence of the children, the diligence and charm of the palace women, the concentration and elegance of the noble concubines who play the musical instruments, the dignified elegance of the noble concubines who listen to the music, and the lazy and slightly melancholy demeanor of the grooming concubines are all truly reproduced under the painter's pen, which is the most vivid true portrayal of the daily life of the Southern Tang court.
This volume is composed of dozens of characters, or groups of three or five people, or six or seven people in a cluster, and the characters are arranged in an orderly manner, which fully demonstrates the author's ability to control the big scene. Although the lines are more casual, not as rigorous and neat as the "Wenyuan Diagram" or the "Heavy Screen Chess Diagram", the smoothness and omission of the lines also show their own style characteristics. Especially as a hand scroll, in terms of composition and character layout, many characters appear in opposite directions, which is obviously more difficult than "Wenyuan Tu" or "Heavy Screen Chess Diagram". Although this volume is not the original work, it still makes people feel the superiority of Zhou Wenji in the dense gathering of lines and the large spatial distribution of composition.
According to the history of painting, Zhou Wenju was a Hanlin to be edicted, with a multi-faceted painting genius, good at interpreting figures, mountain forest spring stones, and You Jingshi female painting. He created female paintings, and the characters' clothing and pattern treatment did not combat the pen, which was obviously different from his creation of Daoist figures and mountain forest spring stone works, which was also one of the most important features of his female paintings, which was more delicate and even compared with Zhou Fang's female paintings, and had a rich and graceful beauty. The predecessors talked about the work of painting women, not expensive to shi Zhu shi powder, gold and jade, and decoration as the work, but expensive in the state of their boudoir, that is, to be able to write the demeanor and charm of the lady. Looking at this volume of works, the detail of its observation of life in the palace, the beauty of its shape, the complex changes of the characters, and the charm of the characters it shows are indeed admirable and worthy of being handed down from generation to generation.
Text and pictures come from the Internet