Chinese Painting Scroll Palace MuseumLandscape by Shi Tao, Qing Dynasty

Description

Landscape by Shi Tao, Qing Dynasty,
hand scroll
Color on paper, 20.5 x 830 cm,
Shi Tao (1630 - 1724) was Buddhist monk. The tenth-generation descendent of the prince Jingjiang of the previous dynasty Ming that had fallen to the Qing rulers in 1664. Shi Tao was a native of Quanzhou, Guangxi. His family name was Zhu and given name Ruoji and nicknamed Achang. Upon tonsuring, he adopted the names Yuan Ji, Chao Ji and Dao Ji. He was one of the four Eminent Monks at his times. He styled himself as Kugua Heshang (Balsam Pear Monk) and used many other style names including Dadizi, Qingxiang Yiren, Qingxiang Chenren, Jingjian Houren and Qingxiang Laoren, and in his old age he called himself Xia Zunzhe (Blind Worthy), Lingding Laoren (Solitary Old Man) and others.
The painting Landscape displays best Shi Tao's style noted for lucid ink marks and bold brushwork. The overlapped luxurious groves are ingeniously arranged in altering dark and light strokes, leaving breathing spaces among objects. Rocks depicted with long lorush strokes that look like hanging hemp strands look solid and dense dots added on them make the peaks exuberant. The bamboo leaves in the painting are executed using strokes of the Yuan-dynasty artist Ni Zan (1301 - 1374), bu his leaves are much denser than Ni's. Shi Tao's paintings are usually in innovative compositions. YVhether his presentation of the Huangshan Mountains veiled in mist, rivers in the South of China, precipes, o  weathered trees, either in a horizontall extended layout, deep or high perspective, are ingeniously and creatively arranged. This painting is in a private collection overseas.
Track Page Views With
Auctiva's FREE Counter