Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)

 Style:

The early Yuan painters inherited no such healthy traditions as had those of the early Sung. Two courses were open to them, those always open to artists dissatisfied with the present and the immediate past: archaism and innovation, the revival of old system and the creation of new ones. Like their late Northern Sung predecessors, the literati painters of the early Yuan chose to combine the two.

 The archaism of the literati painters was not so much a matter of wholehearted, admiring imitation of early painting as of stylistic illusion, the calculated evocation of the past with all its associations.

 Other artists like Chao Meng-fu carry the denial of romanticism into an austerity of mood that verges on bleakness. The achievements of the Sung dynasty are consciously sacrificed: the graded washes are gone; there is little sense of space and no atmosphere. Since the blank area above the horizon serves no important function in the composition, the painter uses it to write a long inscription, describing the circumstances under which the picture was painted.

Late Yuan painters merit the characterization of “insipid” or “bland” which Chinese critics apply as a term of high praise. Other artists like Wang Meng concerned himself more with space, mass and tactile qualities than the others; not so much, however, to reproduce properties of the exterior world, as to reveal an interior one.

 

Artists:

Chien Hsuan

Chao Meng-fu

Kao Ko-kung

Sheng Mou

The Four Great Masters at late Yuan: