"Zhong Li" and "Jiang Song", they were the Painters of the Zhejiang School or the Court of the Ming Dynasty, because the style was very close to the Southern Song Dynasty's "Xia Jue" and "Ma Yuan", so when the antique dealers who did not xiao made fake paintings, they changed the names of their paintings to the names of these Song Dynasty masters. In fact, a large proportion of the works that are currently circulating "Ma Yuan" or "Xia Jue" are the works of this group of Painters of the Zhejiang School of the Ming Dynasty, known as "Mad Cult".
Zhong Li and Jiang Song, the two "disappearing names", represent a group of forgotten Zhejiang painters. Under the painstaking research of modern scholars, more and more paintings have regained their original identity. At the time of the birth of these works, they may be regarded as proud masterpieces, or they may be criticized by thousands of people. However, in modern times, each painting is regarded as a manifestation of the artist's talent, re-recognized by the audience, and also reveals the rich and diverse artistic features of Ming Dynasty painting for us.
Jiang Song (Old Legend Xia Jue) Shanshui Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
The signature on a painting is an objective criterion for judging the author of a painting, but evidence can also be lost, especially when the signature contradicts the style of the painting. Like this vertical axis of "Landscape and Water", the lower left of the painting has the signature of "Chen Xia Jue". However, the style of this painting is too crude to conform to Xia Jue and his time, which makes people suspect that such a signature may be a later counterfeit. In the upper right corner of the painting, a rectangular stain appears, and the silk has obvious traces of being cut, perhaps this is the original signature, which was deliberately cut.
The only way to reveal the author of this painting is to compare the form and style of the picture. From large areas of baked stones, leaves randomly dyed with ink, and translucent paper-cut distant mountains, these specific characteristics, step by step, narrowed down the scope and searched for authors. After comparison, on another piece of Jiang Song's "Landscape and Water" map, we see the same stones, leaves and distant mountains, so we can confirm that this painting, which is said to be Xia Jue, should be from Jiang Song's handwriting. In the upper right corner of this painting of Jiang Song, there is a signature from the painter, signed "Sansong", and stamped with two seals. Whether it is the position of the print or the size of the print, it is a trace of the split with this rectangle.
Jiang Song (蒋嵩), courtesy name Sansong (三松), was a native of Jiangning (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu). The year of birth and death is unknown, but the artistic activities are around Chenghua and Jiajing. Good at painting landscape figures, Painting Fa Zong Wu Wei, is one of the famous masters of the Zhejiang School. Like to use scorched ink dry pen, but also good use of light ink, thick and light, blended in, such as "Fishing Boat Reading Map", mountain stones mostly use large pieces of wet ink, quite powerful, although the scale of the landscape, but the clouds steaming fog change, smoke xia touching the eye. Yigong figures, along with Zheng Wenlin, Zhong Li, Zhang Lu, etc., are all famous masters of the late Zhejiang School. And because of their extravagant writing and more than one degree of momentum, they were once ridiculed by the Wu Pai as "crazy cults."
Jiang Song Landscape Map Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
In the upper right of this painting, there are the characters "Three Pines", as well as the two seals of "Three Pines" and "Jiang Song's Private Seals", which are actually the true deeds of the famous painter Jiang Song of the late Zhejiang School. The painting depicts a fisherman with a fishing rod walking on the riverbank in the middle of a high mountain valley, which is rarely visited, only in the distant mountain pass, where a few huts stand. In the painting, the shades of ink colors are used to create the texture of the bright and shadow sides of the stone, the tree branches are reinforced with contour lines to express the three-dimensional sense, and some of the leaves are dyed with light colors. This gentle and elegant tone and style captures the scene of fishermen preparing to return to their homes when the sky is getting dark in the evening, and the whole space is full of deep and tranquil atmosphere. The painting not only shows the theme of the life of the fisherman, but perhaps also projects the desire of the scholars to be able to get away from the worldly shackles and return to the fishing and seclusion.
Jiang Song Landscape Figures Minneapolis Art Museum Collection, USA
Jiang Song Yuzhou Reading Chart Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
Jiang Song Returned to the Fishing Chart Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
At the top left of the picture, the painter signed the word "Sansong" and stamped with the mark of "Gongjing Gongsun". "Sansong" is the name of the Zhejiang school painter Jiang Song, and "Gongjing Gong" is the title given by the emperor after the death of his great-grandfather Jiang Yongwen, so this "Guiyu Tu" is one of the important paintings handed down by Jiang Song. Jiang Song came from a family of scholars, and the family members were good at poetry or love of calligraphy and painting, so his paintings were also influenced by his background and had a strong literary color. In this painting, Jiang Song adopts the composition of "two banks of one river", so that the slope stones and trees in the close-up view are far away from the distant mountains above the empty river surface, creating a simple and plain atmosphere similar to that of the Yuan Dynasty literati painter Ni Zhan. In addition, the painter also uses a brush with light ink color and full of water to dye mountain stones, so that the scenery of the whole painting is full of atmospheric effects. Jiang Song's paintings have a gentle and bland style, which is unique among the Zhejiang painters who emphasize dynamics and pen-and-ink tension
Jiang Song's "Bamboo Holding the Piano" is a work painted on a folding fan, and the inscription reads "Three Pines for Respect". Ancient painters liked to paint or write on fans for lyrical purposes or to provide souvenirs from friends' collections, thus forming a unique "folding fan" art on this fan surface, and Jiang Song chose bamboo, stone, figures and guqin as the themes of painting. Because the fan frame is small and narrow, the artist places the old man with the staff and the boy with the violin in the center of the picture. Bamboo stones are arranged in the foreground and on the right side, and the background is a distant mountain and waterfall dyed with light ink to deepen the sense of space in the picture. Jiang Song paints figures and clothing patterns, folds with a pen, simple and neat, and the brushwork of painting bamboo trees is also the gesture of expressing bamboo leaves to the back with the pen of calligraphy. Because of the hand, the folding fan painting can be enjoyed up close, so that the painter's exquisite brush and ink can be seen in full view.
Jiang Song's son Jiang Qian Chibi Figure Length 30.5cm Horizontal 145.5cm Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
This drawing was painted in the thirty-first year of the Ming Dynasty (1603) and was written at the age of 79. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, many literati and inkers have created many famous works under the theme of Chibi, and Jiang Qian's "Chibi Map" was drawn based on the famous "Later Chibi Fu" made by the famous Northern Song Dynasty writer Su Shi. The picture depicts the feelings of the literati when they travel to Chibi, although they have changed dynasties many times, but the country and mountains are still the same. The image is far-reaching, the composition takes a top-down viewing angle, and the red wall is located at the left end of the scroll, steep and steep. The mountain road winds around it, and several literati are enjoying the scenery and chanting poems. In the middle of the scroll, the river is open, with cranes soaring in the air, and a scribe sitting idly on a boat on the shore, which may be Su Shi. Landscapes and characters mingle. The back is Chen Tailai's book "Later Chibi Fu". The author of this painting knows himself: "Jiang Qian wrote for Mr. Qianfeng in the autumn. "Introduction to the first plutonium "Imperial Dynasty Enrong" and other 4 tibetan seals, hou plutonium "Hongqiao residents", "to the Delhi people" 2 seals.
Jiang Qian, born in 1525, died in unknown year, Ming Dynasty painter. Zi Jian was a native of Jiangning (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu). Son of Jiang Song. Yuwu County (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu) Hongqiao. Gong shan shui, clean and elegant, by no means similar to its father's school.
Ming Jiang Qian imitation Wang Meng landscape ink painting on paper 98.1 horizontal 34 cm National Palace Museum
This painting is one of the few surviving paintings by Jiang Qian, the son of the Zhejiang painter Jiang Song. In the picture, the mountains are layered on top of each other, almost filling the frame with airtight air. On the right side of the painting, there is a waterfall hanging high, creating a deep sense of space between the valleys. The near-view mountain stone has a long pine standing tall, and the mountain hut is hidden in the mountain, which is very suitable for the literati to read and rest by the inscription on the painting: "Jiang Qianqiang Huanghe Mountain Qiao Brushwork", knowing that this is Jiang Qianlin imitating the Landscape Works of the Yuan Dynasty painter Wang Meng. The rocks are covered with dense, curved short arcs, and the ink color is clear. This is a variation of the painter from Wang Meng's usual "cow hair" technique, in order to express the geographical landscape of Jiangnan's water and countryside with soft stones and dense grasses. Generally speaking, Zhejiang painters rarely learned Wang Meng's painting style. In Jiang Song's heirloom works, there is no such technique or style. Therefore, Jiang Qian's painting is obviously not a inheritance of family learning, but is influenced by the Wu school painters who studied with the four masters of the Yuan Dynasty as the object of study. Jiang Qian's departure from the tradition of the Zhejiang School and his move closer to the Wu Sect should be a deliberate change chosen to cater to the tastes of the audience at that time!
Ming Jiang Qian, Baoqin, Sitting Alone, Ink and Pencil on Paper, Length 134.1 cm, Width 61.8 cm, Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing
In the picture, the peak wall is facing the lake, the green trees are lush, the houses are water pavilions, and the flat slope embankments are all interesting. In the Yong Pavilion, some people looked out over the railing, and on the flat slope in front of the house, some people sat alone in the stream, and there were children holding the violin standing. Pen and ink study literature is clear, and the artistic conception is clear.