Chinese Painters | Page 9

its highest expression Wu Tao-tz[)u]
holds first place. His memory dwells in history as that of one of the
greatest masters in China and legend has still further enhanced the
might of his genius. It is highly probable that his work is entirely
destroyed, but by the aid of copies, incised stones and wood engravings
of the twelfth century, an idea of the painter's conception can be formed.
He seems to have been the creator of a Chinese type of Kwanyin, the
Buddhist incarnation of mercy and charity. Drapery covers the high
drawn hair. She is attired in the harmonious folds of a plain and ample
garment and expresses supreme authority, the sublimity of divine love.
If to these fragments of an immense plastic production is added the

analysis furnished by the written records, we can define with some
degree of certitude the place occupied by Wu Tao-tz[)u] in the history
of Chinese painting. The books state that the lines from his brush fairly
vibrated; all united in marvelling at the spirituality emanating from
forms thus defined. He adhered almost exclusively to the use of
powerful ink-lines and denied himself the use of any color, whether
scattered or prominent, which would have robbed his painting of the
austerity which was the source of its surpassing feeling. But in order to
appreciate the full value of the new ideas introduced by Wu into
Chinese painting, it is necessary to understand the exact nature of the
technique that was in practice up to the seventh and eighth centuries, at
the opening of the T'ang dynasty.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII. WHITE EAGLE. SUNG PERIOD
Collection of R. Petrucci.]
At that time there prevailed the analytic, painstaking, detailed and very
considered drawing that is common to all periods preceding great
constructive work. This technique admitted the use of two fundamental
methods: one called double contour, the other contour or single
contour. The method of double contour was applied chiefly to the
drawing of plant life in landscape. It consisted in outlining leaves or
branches by means of two lines of ink placed in apposition. The space
thus enclosed was filled with color. Any peculiarities of formation,
knots in wood and veins in leaves were added subsequently. The name
of single contour was applied to drawings wherein a single ink line
outlined the object, the space enclosed being then filled with color.
If the application of these analytic methods was sometimes carried to
the extreme of delicacy it never became labored. Throughout its entire
evolution the art of the T'ang period is characterized by a sense of the
magnificent. Once the study of forms was exhausted, this type of work
was bound to be superceded. Wu Tao-tz[)u] profited by the work of his
predecessors. Combining in a single stroke of the brush, vigor and an
eclectic character of line, with values and fluidity of tone, he brought to
a supreme unity the two great principles by which things are made
manifest in all the magic of their essential structure. But it must be

understood that this patient investigation of forms was not limited to
preparing the way for a single master. The logical outcome was an
independent movement to which the origin of modern Chinese painting
can be traced.
"Painting has two branches," the books say, "that of the North and that
of the South; the separation occurred in the T'ang period." These terms
Northern School and Southern School must not be taken literally. They
serve merely to characterize styles which, in the eighth century,
liberated themselves from methods demanding such close study and
exact definition of forms. The style of the Northern School is strong,
vehement and bold; the style of the Southern School is melancholy and
dreamy. The ideal of Northern China, impregnated with barbarian
elements, is brought into contrast with that of Southern China, heir to
an already ancient civilization, and under the spell of Taoist legends
and the bewildered dreams of its philosophers.[11]
[11] These divisions of Northern and Southern Schools do not
correspond, as might be imagined, to geographical limitations. Painters
of the South worked in the style of the North and painters of the North
likewise used the Southern style. Moreover the same master was able to
employ one or the other according to the inspiration of the moment.
These works were produced for a receptive people capable of
understanding both styles.
[Illustration: PLATE IX. HORSEMAN FOLLOWED BY TWO
ATTENDANTS Sung Period. Collection of A. Stoclet.]
Li Ssu-hsün and his son Li Chao-tao (eighth century) are considered to
be the founders of the Northern School. The paintings attributed to
them show the character which the Northern style preserved up to the
Ming period and which was to be emphasized to the point of brutality
at the hands of certain masters in the