Xiang Shengmo (1597-1658), the first character Yi, the later character Kong Zhang, the number Yi An, also known as Xu Shan Qiao . People from Jiaxing, Zhejiang. His grandfather, father and uncle were all famous collectors and painters of paintings and calligraphy. Xiang Shengmo has been deeply influenced by family studies since childhood, and has studied ancient calligraphy and painting masterpieces, immersed in calligraphy and painting, and is exquisite in landscapes, characters, flowers and birds.
The "Landscape Orchid Bamboo Map" in the Suzhou Museum is 25.2 cm in length and 24.6 cm in width, 32.8 cm in outer length and 57.7 cm in width. This figure was composed by Xiang Shengmu around the forty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1620) and belongs to his early works. At that time, Xiang Shengmu was twenty-three or four years old. Judging from the pen and ink in the album, it has the immaturity of a young painter, but it is already extraordinary, and it should be regarded as a masterpiece.
One of the "Landscape Orchid Bamboo Diagrams" (see Figure 1) is an ink pen orchid, painted with a self-title: "The breeze is near the green shadow, and the afterglow is fragrant." "The print is damaged and not easily recognizable. The ancient literati liked the beauty of poetry to "Lan Zhang", the truth of friendship as "Lan Jiao", and the good friend as "Lan Ke". Orchid is one of the four gentlemen, with the characteristics of purity and elegance, orchid is a "regular visitor" in literati paintings. Although the orchid in this picture is only a bunch, it is graceful and full of life, and the orchid leaves are graceful and stretched, swaying with the wind, interspersed with grace. The painter uses the pen in the center, the strokes are twisted and turned, the thickness changes are rich, and the orchid leaves are quite folded, intermittent and continuous, and there are receiving and longitudinal. The flowers are dotted with light ink, and there is not much ink but all of them are integrated into the brushwork of calligraphy. The orchid leaves are heavily inked, and the ink is moist and dripping, vividly expressing the texture and charm of the orchid. The slope is rubbed with light ink, moss is dotted with thick ink, and the yin and yang are behaved to the back. The whole picture has a strong literary atmosphere, which can be seen in the painter's aesthetic tendencies.
Figure 1
The second part of the "Landscape orchid bamboo map" (see figure 2) is an ink pen snow bamboo, with a self-title: "Rolling up and rolling is also long, and the flying feathers are not scattered and revived... The snow window is drunk with pens, and it is inevitable that the viewer should beg me outside the shape of the skeleton, and smile. Kong Zhangzhi. "In the painting, three or two bamboo branches protrude from behind the boulder, and the painter outlines the bamboo leaves with thick and light ink colors, and the bamboo leaves are depicted in a blank manner on the top of the bamboo leaves and on the boulders and grass slopes. The bamboo branches are bent by the snow, and you can feel the snow from the picture. The background is rendered in light ink, while the tough bamboo branches and dense bamboo leaves are not in a strong and stubborn state. The boulders in the painting are outlined in thick ink, dyed with a very light ink color, with scars and no handwriting, and the ink blends together and blends into one.
Figure 2
The third part of the "Landscape Orchid Bamboo Map" (see Figure 3) is the ink pen landscape. From this picture, we can see the rigorous and complex shadow of the Song people, which is obviously different from the painter's later works that integrate the meaning of yuanren. In the painting, the painting depicts deep mountains and dense forests, the mountain roads are winding and rugged, the mountain waterfalls are covered with mist, the trees are lush and vibrant, four or five huts and pavilions are hidden in the mountain forest, and several scribes talk in the pavilions, which is very quiet, and the mountains and forests are deep. The trees and mountain stones depicted by the painter are extremely meticulous and rigorous, and the yin and yang of each stone are described very clearly, without any ambiguity, and the method is also decent, which can be seen that Xiang Shengmu was meticulous and serious in learning the brushwork of the ancients in the early days.
Figure 3
From these three early works of Xiang Shengmu, it can be seen that the painter has a solid foundation in painting, uses a meticulous and rigorous pen, and carefully observes the natural scenery while learning from the ancients. His paintings are close to reality, accurate in shape, serious and meticulous, contrary to the rough painting style of "yibi cursory grass" pursued by everyone at that time, making him a unique painter in the painting world in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, "morale writers are ready".
——Excerpt from China Painting and Calligraphy