1. Appreciating Wu Wei’s Baqiao Bridge snow Figure
- Author
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Peng Peng and Jing Pu
- Subjects
Painting ,White (horse) ,biology ,Poetry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Art history ,Art ,biology.organism_classification ,Visual arts ,Style (visual arts) ,Entertainment ,Recluse ,Emperor ,Romanticism ,media_common - Abstract
Wu Wei was the representative personage of Zhejiang painters. His lightsome ink and wild painting style attracted many people. He then became an unusual talent in painting history of Ming Dynasty. People who read Baqiao Bridge Snow Figure would feel rustle in the air at first, but then would find it expressed more that that. This paper tried to interpret this painting further more. Wu Wei (1459--1508), his style name, also known as courtesy name, was Ciwen. He also may be known by the pseudonym (Xiaoxian). He was the representative personage of Zhejiang painters in Ming dynasty from Jiangxia, Hubei. He was poor when he was a child and become homeless in Nanjing. He was devote himself to painting and became famous gradually after adopting by a family of public officials. He was summoned by three generations of the emperors for three times: he was awarded as Jinyizhenfu and worked in Renzhi palace in the reign of Emperor Mingwan; he was awarded Jin Yiwei Baihu and the imprint of very best painting in the reign of Emperor Mingxiao; he was recalled when Emperor Wuzong ascended. Imaging the constraint of backing to the palace, Wu Wei hung one on and died at the journey. Wu Wei behaved unbridledly all his life, just like his painting, bold and unrestrained. Now we could still see his landscape paintings, such as Baqiao Bridge Snow Figure, Footprints in the Snow, Fishing in the Snow. Now let's focus on Baqiao Bridge Snow Figure, it was a silk scroll ink painting with the length of 183.6 cm and width of 110.2 cm. It portrayed the scenery of Baqiao Bridge. In the picture, there was an ancient temple far away, a great river full of ice and snow in the middle, and deadwood with a donkey walking by in the close shot. The picture was quite overwhelming by using bold brush, crude line and articulate ink. It signed with Xiaoxian and printed with Wu Wei. Baqiao Bridge is a very famous ancient bridge, also called Enchantment bridge, located in east of Xian, Shaanxi. It was a vital communication line in old time, tang people used to say goodbye here. So there was a literary quotation of bid farewell in Baqiao Bridge. In the Complete Collection of Tang Poetry, there were hundreds of poetry related to this bridge. According to the record of the poetry of Yunfu Qunyu: poet Meng Haoran once came to Baqiao with a donkey in the snow, he said: "I am on the back of the donkey in the snow." Meng Haoran's experience became a much-told story, and painters always used this theme. Wu Wei's Baqiao Bridge Snow Figure was an example, which portrayed a scene of an old man riding across the bridge in the snow. The wild trees died in the cliff, the river was freeze, and an old man was riding a donkey across the bridge in the snow miserably. The riding figure was very simple but vivid and meaningful. The several strokes formed the vision focus of the painting and emphasized the poetic connotation. The painter abandoned vanity and noisy while putting coldness, desolation in it by describing white snow, rusty trees, the temple in the end of the mountain. Those barren scenes plus the shadow of the riding man made people feel melancholy. The two riding men looked particularly tiny and lonely against the large piece of snow mountain background. But what the painting wanted to express was more than loneliness. Wen Zhengming in Ming Dynasty said: "The recluse like to paint landscape for self entertainment and the snow is frequently emerged. Maybe they want to express their nobleness and high morality. " Painting snow reflected Chinese painters' romanticism. Snow means white, white means empty, white snow
- Published
- 2015