SHITAO / 石濤 (1642-1707)
Jing Ting Mountain / 敬亭山) (300m - 980ft)
China
In Paysage à la cascade, Les monts Jingting en automne, rouleau, 1671, Musée Guimet, Paris
About this roll
This roll, faithful to the traditional Chinese perspective rendered in successive plan layouts, presents a landscape of wooded rocky massifs, in the center, a waterfall flows into a stream. Drowned in the abundance of foliage, a man near a pavilion contemplates the spectacle. In a colophon the painter relates the circumstances of the creation: "There I saw in turn authentic paintings of Nizan and Huang Gongwang. My days, from then on, were according to the impressions that I preserved ". The strangeness of this landscape with the dark mountain cluttered with white clouds, is reinforced by the rapid and nervous brush stroke. This painting depends on Chinese aesthetics essentially concerned with "the natural" and whose appreciation is not about the finished result of the plot but the quality of the gesture that made it, enhancing the simplicity.
Constructed by firm rings that are endowed with an infinity of touches and ink values, this landscape uses a technique with brush and ink on paper.
The mountain
The Jing Ting Mountain / 敬亭山) (300m - 980ft) is in the northern suburbs of Xuancheng City, Anhui province, China. Before the Jin Dynasty, the mountain was known as Zhao Ting Mountain. In 266 AD, its name was changed to Jing Ting Mountain (Jingting shan) to avoid the name taboo of the emperor, Sima Zhao.
Jing Ting Mountain and the scenery therein has been the frequent subject of poetry and artwork. The poems written by Xie Tiao (464–499) of the Southern Qi Dynasty brought it a widespread reputation. From then on, the area was visited frequently by many poets. The famous Chinese ancient poet Li Bai (699-762) said that "only Jing Ting Mountain can keep attracting you without boredom."
Over 1,000 poems were written about Jing Ting Mountain and, therefore, it is regarded as the "Mountain of Poetry" in China.
The artist
The chinese landscape painter Shitao or Shi Tao ( 石濤), was a descendant of the Ming imperial family born into the Ming dynasty imperial clan as Zhu Ruoji (朱若極), in the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).
Shitao is one of the most famous individualist painters of the early Qing years. The art he created was revolutionary in its transgressions of the rigidly codified techniques and styles that dictated what was considered beautiful. Imitation was valued over innovation, and although Shitao was clearly influenced by his predecessors (namely Ni Zan and Li Yong), his art breaks with theirs in several new and fascinating ways.
His formal innovations in depiction include drawing attention to the act of painting itself through his use of washes and bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, as well as an interest in subjective perspective and the use of negative or white space to suggest distance. Shi Tao's stylistic innovations are difficult to place in the context of the period. In a colophon dated 1686, Shitao wrote: "In painting, there are the Southern and the Northern schools, and in calligraphy, the methods of the Two Wangs (Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi). Zhang Rong (443–497) once remarked, 'I regret not that I do not share the Two Wangs' methods, but that the Two Wangs did not share my methods.' If someone asks whether I [Shitao] follow the Southern or the Northern School, or whether either school follows me, I hold my belly laughing and reply, 'I always use my own method!'"
The poetry and calligraphy that accompany his landscapes are just as beautiful, irreverent, and vivid as the paintings they complement. His paintings exemplify the internal contradictions and tensions of the literati or scholar-amateur artist, and they have been interpreted as an invective against art-historical canonization.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
