Axis of Xie Shichen’s Yueyang Tower

[Axis of the Yueyang Tower by Xie Shichen]

Axis of the Yueyang Tower by Xie Shichen in the Ming Dynasty, painted by Xie Shichen in paper, colored, 248 cm vertically and 102.3 cm horizontally
The self-knowledge of this painting is: “Yueyang Tower. Written by Chuxian Xie Shichen.” The lower seal is “Yiren under Gusu Platform” and “Xie Sizhong’s”. Seal the seals of Qianlong and Jiaqing
The axis of the Yueyang Tower by Xie Shichen is the same as the page of the Yueyang Tower by Xia Yong, the master of the Yuan Dynasty, which takes the Yueyang Tower as the motif of creation, but it is quite different from the complex and gorgeous style of painting that Xia Yong strives to depict the architectural theme on the construction site. The Yueyang Tower by Xie Shichen is only a brief summary of the two-story building, and the vast majority of the pictures are filled with clouds and vast lakes. Without the author’s inscription, it is hard to imagine that the building that omits the structural features is Yueyang Tower, and whether the author has actually visited Yueyang Tower on Dongting Lake is indeed doubtful. However, because the author deliberately pursues and displays the open artistic conception and momentum of Yueyang Tower “holding the distant mountains and swallowing the Yangtze River”, the whole work shows not only the uncanny craftsmanship of architecture, the magnificent beauty of nature, but also the magnanimity and breadth of mind of literati painters, which can not help arousing the viewers’ nostalgia for the ancient times of “worrying about the world first, and happy after”. This shows the development and changes of architectural painting in the Ming Dynasty in terms of creative theme, aesthetic orientation and expression techniques.