Monday, December 28, 2015

Met Museum: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the Metropolitan Collection (Rotation 1, Post 3)

Aside from the many landscape paintings on display, there are several other works at the current Met Museum exhibit Masterpieces of Chinese Painting that are well worth mentioning.

First, there is The Classic of Filial Piety, an eleventh century handscroll on which are inscribed in ink and color scenes from the treatise of the same name that dates from approximately 400 BCE.  The text is made up of eighteen chapters that deal with the proper relationships that exist in society, not only between parent and child but among different social strata as well.  This clearly reflects the influence of Confucian thinking, and the treatise is in fact presented as a series of discussions that took place between the master and his disciple Zengzi.  Beyond this, though, the work looks back in its study of the proper relationships that underlie social harmony to the I Ching, the ancient Book of Changes used in China since time immemorial for divination purposes.  The painting by Li Gonglin, a civil servant, is an obvious attempt to remind his peers of the need to adhere to correct principles in a troubled time.  In so doing, Li Gonglin raises the level of his art to a new dimension of personal expression.  The painting becomes more than merely a decorative object to be judged on its aesthetic value and instead takes on a moral significance as it reaffirms to the viewer the importance of Confucian values to the maintenance of social order.

I had expected to see at the exhibit more images of dragons, so ubiquitous are they in Chinese folklore and iconography.  In the event, the only image on which they were featured was Beneficent Rain, a Yuan dynasty handscroll painted by Zhang Yucai who was not only an artist but also, according to notes provided by the museum, "the thirty-eighth pope of the Zhengyi ('Orthodox Unity') Daoist church."  It was his position as a Daoist patriarch that made Zhang Yucai such an important figure at the Yuan court.  As Adam T. Kessler writes in Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road:
"Zhang Yucai assisted the Yuan Chengzong emperor, performing thaumaturgic acts of "Daoist Magic."  Subsequently, in 1301 AD Yucai was summoned to meet with the emperor at the Yuan's summer-retreat and alternate-capital, Shangdu.  During the later Wuzong and Renzong reigns, Yucai was bestowed with noble rank, clothing (golden paraphernalia), and a gold seal of authority.  In other words, that the dragon ruling Heaven in this painting bears four claws is consistent with the four-clawed dragons worn by the Yuan emperors; more pertinently, Zhang Yucai's intimate association with the Yuan court."
It's interesting to note that the dragons depicted in Zhang Yucai's painting are not the frightening fire-breathing monsters of Western lore but instead seem more a part of the natural order.  In this, they are similar to those painted earlier by Muqi Fachang and Chen Rong during the Southern Song dynasty.

The influence of Daoism can also be seen in Liu Chen and Rhuan Zao Entering the Tintai Mountains by the Yuan dynasty artist Zhao Cangyun.  This long handscroll retells the delightful Han dynasty legend of two hapless villagers who wander lost in the mountains until they are made guests of female immortals.  In the manner of Rip van Winkle, when they finally return to their homes a few months later they find that in actuality seven generations have passed during their absence.  Much like his subjects, Zhao Cangyun also withdrew to the mountains and there became a recluse.

Chan (Zen) Buddhist influences can also be seen in three Southern Song dynasty paintings on view.  The first of these, Bodhidharma crossing the Yangzi River on a reed, is notable for its depiction of Bodhidharma as a fairly young man and not, as he is usually portrayed, a crazed old recluse.  More important is the technique used in this hanging scroll by Li Yaofu.  Rather than the coarse hurriedly drawn ink strokes typical of Zen painting, the artist here used a wash to soften the lines to the point where they fade to no more than suggestive shadows, a technique referred to as wangliang or "apparition" style painting.  As for Li Yaofu himself, his name appears nowhere in Chinese documents of the period but rather in a much later Japanese catalog of paintings entitled Kundaikan Sbcheki.  This has led some scholars to surmise that he may have been a Japanese monk who traveled through China before returning to his homeland.  The second painting, Meeting between Yaoshan and Li Ao, that is attributed to Zhiweng also makes effective use of the "apparition" style in its illustration of an encounter between a Confucian scholar and a Zen master in which the master, not surprisingly, comes out on top.  Finally, Chan master riding a mule creates a memorable portrait with a few quick brush strokes.

Near the end of the exhibit, I came across three remarkable paintings by a Qing dynasty artist, Bada Shanren, of whom I had never before heard.  These were the hanging scrolls Two eagles and Fish and rocks and the handscroll Birds in a lotus pond.  The last two are almost abstractions and strike the viewer as thoroughly modernist works.  This effect is enhanced by the anthropomorphic expressions with which the artist endowed the mynahs in Birds in a lotus pond.  By painting heavily with ink on the highly absorbent satin, Bada Shanren created huge blots and washes to which he then gave form with a few well placed strokes.

The exhibit's first rotation will be on view through April 17, 2016, and the second from May 7, 2016 through October 11, 2016.  The museum is also hosting exhibits of Chinese lacquer (through June 19, 2016) and Chinese textiles (also through June 19, 2016).

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