PREFACE
Yun Shouping, a native of Wujin County in Jiangsu Province, famously earned the sobriquet of Nantian. He is hailed as one of the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’ alongside the ‘Four Wangs’ (Wang Shiming, Wang Jian, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi) and Wu Li. As a boy, he experienced distressing incidents, including separation from his family during wartime and the collapse of the Ming dynasty. As a result, he immersed himself in the art of painting, seeking both refined aesthetics in worldly matters and innovations in the principles of brushwork. Yun Shouping pioneered the Changzhou School of painting, and his inspired flower works, using mogu painting techniques, were regarded as the best of his generation. His landscape paintings were also extraordinary.
Nantian’s boneless painting techniques, which were both diverse and ethereal, earned him recognition as a major pioneer of the orthodox school of realism. Several peony paintings featured in this exhibition serve as great examples of his skills. Both ‘Landscapes, Flowers and Birds’ album (1675) – created in the 14th year of the Emperor Kangxi’s reign in the Qing dynasty – and ‘Flowers’ album (1686) – painted in the 25th year of the Emperor Kangxi’s reign – demonstrate how Nantian’s peony depictions were heavily influenced by the distinctive style of Northern Song master artist Xu Chongsi. The former artwork applies heavy red and white paint to show the splendour of the flowers without any deliberate reliance on the craftsmanship itself, while the latter outlines the leaves in heavy ink as the artist vividly highlights the purple peonies in all their glory by adding layers of white and lilac tints. In the ‘Spring Flowers’ album (date unknown), the serene white peonies are crafted using spontaneous brushstrokes. In the fan album of ‘Peonies and Apricots’ (date unknown), a combination of outlining and tints illustrate the peonies in purple and red, thus restoring the flowers’ elegance. The work in the ‘Assorted Paintings’ album (date unknown) is equally sophisticated as it captures the manner of the peony that was created in ink by the Yuan masters. In those works, the petals are traditionally depicted in dry ink, whereas the stamens are crafted by employing spontaneous dots, creating a refreshingly serene visual effect.
Yun Shouping was an independent thinker and a visionary when it came to artistic theories of painting. He suggested that painters who wanted to capture realism should focus on more than just superficial feature, as they would be in danger of creating flower paintings that looked too stiff. He claimed that they should not be bound by principles and rules so they could best capture their subjects’ ‘ethereal manner’. Thus, Yun’s bird-and-flower paintings greatly differed from those created by his contemporaries, whose works frequently featured glamorous red and green blots. Yun highlighted depth beyond the brush. He captured the ethereal qualities of a scene or subject – those qualities that cannot be seen but can be felt – by using wrinkles and tiny touches of ink. He once said: ‘There are curves even in a ladle of water and hollows in a piece of stone.’ The ‘secrets’ to capturing nature, according to Yun, were ‘serenity’ (dan), ‘transcendence’ (yi), ‘curves’ (qu) and ‘depth’ (shen). Yun highlighted naturalistic shapes and features, and he emphasised on the theory of ‘feeling taking’ (she qing), meaning that a painting should evoke emotion in the viewer. He demonstrated how a painter could express his feelings in paintings that accurately represent reality. He also offered a new interpretation of the bird-and-flower court paintings through the literati painting style. His ideas have broadened the aesthetic values and spirituality of bird-and-flower paintings over time.
This exhibition features Yun Shouping’s extraordinary depictions, ranging from flowers, leaves, vegetables, fish, birds, weeds, algae to landscapes. He bestowed praise on himself by saying that ‘nature is within my wrist and between my fingers’ and ‘I want God to be jealous of me’. However, he also sought nature humbly as his mentor, which is the core concept of his art. As he said, he ‘watered flowers in his southern field’, meaning that nature became a major part of his life. He planted flowers next to fences and wrote poetry about them. Nature was his muse, and sometimes he painted natural subjects so he could use them as metaphors for his ideas. For example, his depiction of ancient plums represented his unyielding faith without the need to flatter anyone. In addition, depicting vegetables and fruits reminded him that fictional natural arrangements were created only for visual pleasure. These arrangements also reminded him of the people from Jiangnan who suffered many years of drought and famine. He encouraged people to treasure nature. He said: ‘If you cherish bamboos, don’t dig up the bamboo shoots on the path and let them grow. If you love pine trees, leave their branches to grow even if they obstruct the way.’ Yun valued the moral and educational functions of his bird-and-flower paintings. He sought transcendence in his art, but he was also not out of touch with mundane affairs. He discovered life’s truths by showing his concern for all living things. His artwork forever expresses genuine, heart-warming feelings.
The Macao Museum of Art (MAM), the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum have collaborated since 2011, presenting successful ‘Four Wangs’ and Wu Li exhibitions. To celebrate the 390th anniversary of Yun Shouping’s birth, the MAM presents Yun Shouping: Paintings and Calligraphy from the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum. The show features 182 pieces from both museums’ collections and displays calligraphy works and paintings by the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’ in Macao, demonstrating the close relationship between the three museums. The show is split into three sections, with ‘Masterpieces – Craftsmanship Beyond Nature’ at its core, accompanied by ‘Disciples and Successors’ and ‘Fellow Artists’. Together, the sections showcase Yun Shouping’s iconic works and the remarkable pieces created by his family members, disciples and art friends. Yun’s extraordinary art and charismatic personality are on show here, while the exhibition also highlights the epoch-making significance of his inheritance and innovation. Alongside the show is a symposium that comprehensively examines the profound influence of Yun’s works on painting masters like Ju Chao and Ju Lian. Both artists established the Lingnan School of painting by inheriting and developing Yun Shouping’s boneless painting techniques. They invented ingenious ‘water infusion’ (zhuang shui fa) and ‘powder infusion’ (zhuang fen fa) techniques in their art, both of which greatly influenced the development of Macao’s own painting circle.
Yun Shouping, with his own efforts, brought a breath of fresh air to the worldliness-dominated bird-and-flower painting circle of the Qing dynasty. He left behind his profound artistic techniques and aesthetically pleasing works for later generations to enjoy and learn from. His depictions of small scenes, such as flowers and grass, each contained a far bigger universe of ideas, feelings and skills. Moreover, the refreshingly poetic inscriptions that accompanied his paintings – written in his distinctive and striking ‘Yun style’ of calligraphy – are also impressive. Here, we can see a combination of his poetry, calligraphy and paintings, which were hailed as ‘Nantian’s three perfections’. Looking at these delightful treasures quietly allows the viewers to forget their troubles as they develop a spiritual connection with the scenery. When you gaze into these works, you can imagine walking past the fences and along the wild paths yourself. You can also explore the wisdom within these works. As philosopher Zhuangzi said: ‘Heaven, Earth and I were born together, and all things and I are one.’
Nantian once said he trusted that ‘nature is being with me’. We now live in an era where artificial intelligence can create pictures in meticulous detail and data is automatically generated. However, more than 300 years ago, Yun Shouping could see and create multiple images at the tip of his brush. He understood the wisdom of ‘seeing the world in a flower’. He offered us comfort through the unfading beauty in his works and showed us the importance of living in harmony with nature.
Un Sio San
Director of the Macao Museum of Art