handscroll; painting BM-1981-1110-0.1

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:17th century (1544 date on painting but later copy)
Materials:paper
Technique:painted

Dimensions:Height: 29.50 centimetres (image) Height: 32 centimetres (scroll) Length: 62.50 centimetres (image) Length: 939.50 centimetres (scroll)

Description:
Handscroll. Calligraphic frontispiece. Studio in garden, followed by “Zhoujintang ji” inscription (essay by Ouyang Xiu); anonymous portrait of Han Qi and biography of him. Painted in ink on paper. Signed.
IMG


Comments:Farrer 1990: Cat. 4:Chen Chun, also named Chen Daofu and Chen Baoyang, was a painter and calligrapher belonging to the Wu School of scholar-amateur painting in sixteenth-century Suzhou. He was a pupil of the painter Wen Zhengming and like his teacher he devoted himself to art and literature rather than following an official career. This hand scroll combines calligraphic virtuosity with fine painting. The opening section is the title of the scroll ‘Hall of Daytime Elegance’ (Zhoujintang) in large seal script. The use of a calligraphic title in a handscroll can be traced back to the Han dynasty, when stone stelae were surmounted by title-heads. In the hand scroll format the use of the frontispiece first appears in Buddhist sutras of the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368), and during the Ming dynasty they were used as a format for large handwriting, as can be seen in this scroll. The small painting which follows is by Chen Chun and depicts the Hall of Daytime Elegance which was the retreat of the Song official Han Qi (1008-1075). There follows a long piece of calligraphy on the same subject in Chen Chun’s large running script which is dated 1544. Such additional calligraphy is a fine complement to the painting. Chen’s rich elegant style moves fluently, alternating between thick dark strokes applied with pressure and thin lively lightly written characters, and between the full forms of the characters and the more abbreviated renderings. Following the calligraphy is a portrait of Han Qi painted in Song style, and a biography in superb seal script which ends the scroll. The seal script is of the highest quality, with the brush in complete control achieving perfect evenness and roundness of strokes. The combination of painting and calligraphy using as its subject matter a literary or historical personality or event is frequently found in painting of the scholar-amateur tradition, which seeks to express ideas through painting rather than mere outward forms.