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Landscapes after old masters

Dong Qichang Chinese
dated 1630
Not on view
This album demonstrates Dong Qichang's interpretation of the entire spectrum of Song and Yuan styles using a set of contrasting brushstroke methods, which could also be used for depicting actual landscapes. The great theorist and painter took as his point of departure the works of the Yuan master Ni Zan (1306–1374), whose paintings were regarded as calligraphic abstractions of earlier Song styles. In the first two leaves, Dong contrasts—in what he regards as the early and late styles of Ni Zan's art—an "earthen" landscape (round, parallel, "hemp-fiber" brushstrokes) with a "rocky" one (angular, oblique, "folded-ribbon" brushstrokes). In successive leaves, Dong juxtaposes various "earthen" and "rocky" themes in order to evoke different paradigmatic styles of the Northern Song period.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 明　董其昌　山水圖　冊
  • Title: Landscapes after old masters
  • Artist: Dong Qichang (Chinese, 1555–1636)
  • Period: Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
  • Date: dated 1630
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Album of eight leaves; ink on paper
  • Dimensions: Image (each): 9 5/8 x 6 5/16 in. (24.4 x 16 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Edward Elliott Family Collection, Gift of Douglas Dillon, 1986
  • Object Number: 1986.266.5a–k
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

Audio

Cover Image for 7690. Landscapes

7690. Landscapes

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More Artwork

More Artwork
Poem in Cursive Script, Dong Qichang Chinese, Hanging scroll; ink on silk, China
Poem in Cursive Script
Dong Qichang
ca. 1622–25
Pipa (琵琶 ), Wood, ivory, bone, silk, Chinese
Pipa (琵琶 )
Chinese
late 16th–early 17th century
Landscape, Ye Xin Chinese, Double album leaf from a collective album of twelve paintings and facing pages of calligraphy; ink and color on paper, China
Landscape
Ye Xin
datable to 1645–55
Passage from Tao Qian's "Returning Home", Dong Qichang Chinese, Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on gold paper, China
Passage from Tao Qian's "Returning Home"
Dong Qichang
Dung-Chen, Brass, copper, cloisonné, Chinese
Dung-Chen
Chinese
1368–1644

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