The Heart of Ma Yuan: The Search for a Southern Song AestheticMa Yuan, one of China's best-known artists, was a key figure in the period widely celebrated as the golden era of Chinese landscape painting. The Heart of Ma Yuan offers a careful discussion of Ma Yuan’s painting as it emerged within the sophisticated artistic environment of Hangzhou in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Beautifully illustrated with more than 300 illustrations from leading museums and private collections around the world, the book includes discussions of Ma Yuan’s family of six generations of skillful painters, his many patrons, and his distinctive style in engaging Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist genres and his superb landscapes, including animals, flowers, and detailed studies of water. Widely noted for his own keen eye and masterful stylistic analysis, Richard Edwards cultivates the art of looking for a broad readership, from general art lovers to specialists in art history. As a Western scholar exploring the significance of a highly refined Eastern culture, he draws on natural history, poetry, and relevant contemporary writing as well as the work of other artists. |
Contents
| xiv | |
| xxviii | |
| xxxii | |
| xxxv | |
Introduction Ma Yuans Family Patrons
and Style | 1 |
1
Winter | 11 |
2 Winter into
Spring | 45 |
Flowers | 57 |
Buddhist | 107 |
Confucian and Daoist | 129 |
7 The Wider Environment and into Landscape | 199 |
8
Transformations | 229 |
Postface | 295 |
| 299 | |
| 315 | |
4
Water | 89 |
Common terms and phrases
accepted active album leaf appears artist attributed bamboo becomes birds blossoms Boston branch brush Buddhist calligraphy carries century Chan China Chinese clear Cleveland close Clouds Collection color on silk complete Confucius continues contrast Daoist detail from Plate direct dragon ducks dynasty earlier early Emperor Empress extended famous figure followed further hand handscroll Hanging scroll imperial important ink and color landscape Laozi late later leaves light lines Lizong lower Ma Yuan mountain Museum of Art National Palace nature offers original painter painting Palace Museum parallel pine plum poem Poetry present recorded River rock sage scene scholar seal selected setting signed significant single Song Southern Spring style suggest Tang touch tradition translation tree turn Unidentified artist University Wang Yang Yuan Yuan’s