11B - Great Masters of Southern Song_ Xia Gui

list of all Chinese painters in my

estimation when people used to ask me

who is your favorite Chinese painter I

would say for the early period shag way

for the later period sure towel we're

going to have a lecture on turtle by the

way in a later follow-up series so

you'll see him too for shag way we still

need a really serious book length

monographic study there isn't one the

study of him by Suzuki K which was

presented to the symposium in 1970 and

which I refer to in this lecture and I

have it on my on your guide didn't

really take us very far I myself wrote

the biography of shag way for the

Encyclopedia Britannica the 15th edition

published in 1974 but that too is very

short and doesn't take us far I hope

that the lecture that follows them by

presenting some of shag weighs finest

works and good images and adding what I

hope is helpful commentary on them will

inspire some specialists in the future

maybe to undertake the serious study

event that we really need because he is

a very great master as I hope you'll

agree on watching what follows effective

from the 11 90s into sometime around

12:40 Chalet build a position sure hole

in the Academy in that period late 12th

early 13th century beyond that very

little is known about him that's true

Academy painters of the subject southern

some generally but it's particularly

painful in the case of shag way we'd

love to know more about him the earliest

book published on with information on

artists published after his time in the

late 13th century dismisses him

scornfully is of no value I'll quote

that later but in my view is the

greatest of the Southern Academy masters

in some to some degree he broke out of

the Academy mold and certain of his

paintings at least and in other other

ways he represents a grand culmination

or perhaps transcend

sumit when people used to ask who is

your favorite Chinese Peter I would say

sure towel for the late period

shog way for the early period and

perhaps of the tool even shag way is my

favorite all Chinese Peters and you'll

see why I think is I talk or at least

I'll try to make a case for that ok we

will put on the screen now in two

pictures one of them a color slide which

reveals the bad condition of the

painting and the other a black-and-white

photograph in which you can see more of

the more of the composition and so on a

painting attributed to him only but a

good would were to start with because it

shows the connection with the tongue

this small painting of the Palace Museum

in Taipei as I say is seeing bad

condition for that reason we couldn't

bring it in the possessing the past

kappa exhibition i wanted it badly and i

I wrote about it even though it wasn't

there they wouldn't allow it because the

condition so bad it needs to remounting

someone should remodel and touch in all

these cracks and so forth now the

attribution is made in a piece of

writing you can see in the upper right

here if you're sharp I'd buy a late Ming

mm calligrapher and connoisseur and

collector or whatever name 1 da 1 da

here is is I think absolutely right it

looks very much like an early work I

might say of Chalet

well the connections with Li Tong are

obvious the whole shape of the of the

upper landscape form the mountain form

whatever with the separate peak sticking

up or sitting out a bit up the sides and

pine trees on the top and so forth the

large ax-cut sun texture strokes which

you see on the main mass and on the

lower left and lower trigger otherwise

there's more what more things going on

in the picture that you would find in a

li tone picture from the lower left

somebody is seen coming along the path

it's a snowy landscape a wintry

landscape underwear under a parasol or

an umbrella and then down below a boat

is moored and I believe it's actually a

figure - down there - at any rate then

in the lower center is a cluster of

houses the usual things we've seen along

the path where somebody might stop and

eat and rest and so forth with trees

then the path goes up behind the

foreground Ridge you can't really see it

past the waterfall - a place in the sort

of middle left where there's a bridge

covered bridge built over the waterfall

and then above that a temple and there

again people presumably can stop and

rest and so forth among the trees and

then the path goes on this you see very

nicely done around the bluff the what

the texturing that the shaping of this

massive rocky Bluff that's really very

finely done and the whole pictures is

quite masterly with its implicit

narrative it's seasonal aspects it's

quite powerful forms and so on

anyway it makes good sense to attribute

this to Saab way this by the way exists

in two other later imitations I'll show

those just to show you what's wrong here

there's one which we'll put beside the

the good one so you can see the

difference this is attributed to whose

likeness shout ciao

who is his Lea Tom's pupil and it's in

the Palace Museum and Tybee it has

Imperial seals and so forth well not

really not really she'll drown not

really under some painting at all as you

see the whole upper form the bluff here

has been sort of distorted so the these

protruding pieces that the sides are

enlarged and stick out like fingers or

something

and where the whole bluff is much

reduced in size on the other hand the

the temple and the

and all the human parts are enlarged and

made more prominent this artist can't

hide them away who in the way that shag

Way does or the artists of the other one

anyway and generally it's just flattened

and the forms are outlined more heavily

and squared off anyway not a very poor

imitation and the next place

this one was owned by CC long as I

remember and it's attributed well

crazily to a early early song artist in

Bell coming but anyway it doesn't matter

again the upper main upper form is

flattened out and the two protruding

peaks that the sides are enlarged and

all the the human habitation and the

buildings and the figures and all that

are much more prominent and large and

it's all debased

certainly by this by this change made

into a picture much less interest and

certainly a later date okay going on now

if we don't have any data to Shawn way

same as with mountain we can't really if

we if we put together a kind of

hypothetical development from early to

later we do it only on the basis of

with earlier style what seems to exhibit

his style more fully and so forth this

is a fan-shaped

album leaf from the Palace Museum and Ty

Bay and men in a house or a waterside

pavilion open house gazing at a

waterfall there's a signature here I

can't rip tell you exactly where it is

but I remember it is signed and it may

well be an early work of shag way it has

less of his distinctive style more of

kind of everybody's in the whole Academy

figures are turning uncharacteristically

looking back looking to the right at the

water flow instead of looking out toward

the waterfall that's a little unusual

the boat that brought them is

there's there's word to their left here

a path leads in from the lower right and

then some quite lovely pine trees and

the across tree across the water a kind

of done in washes the stream flowing

flowing out of the distance and then up

above but there's really most

characteristic characteristic of Chablis

is this top of the bluff shag way loves

to paint these tops of ridges or with a

bit of vegetation with all the space

misty space below so ok fine painting

very look very like a jog way in this

early period or so a would so I would