Artist: Xia Gui (c. 1180-1230)
Title: Clear and Distant Views of Streams and Hills
Material: ink and color on silk
Site:
Current Location: National Palace Museum Taibei.
Period/Date: Southern Song dynasty
Iconography/Iconology:
Stylistic Comments: Xia Gui's style, along with that of Ma Yuan's-
another prominent Southern Song artist, formed what is known as the Ma Xia
school of Southern Song painting. This was the pre-eminent school of the
court. Typical of the Ma Xia school are impressionistic depictictions of
landscape rendered with a characteristic stroke known as the "axe-cut."
The trees are often depicted with dark, parallel lines for the trunks, pin-wheel-type
foliage, and with partially exposed roots. Extremely subtle gradations of
ink with some background elements barely visible are common to all artists
of the Ma Xia school.
The horizontal scroll is a visual journey through the exemplary landscape
of remote streams and hills. The hand scroll is examined by the viewer from
right to left in small segments (about the width of ones shoulders) which
allows infinitely varying compositions, determined by the process of unrolling
and rolling.
Unlike the Northern Song monumental mountain landscapes, the Southern Song
artists portryed wide, distant vistas. The empahsis is still on nature and
landscape elements rather than human activity. However, the intensely detailed
compositions of the Northern Song artists are replaced by the Southern Song
artists by what appear to be sketchy, loose compositions. As apparent in
this painting, the artist juxtaposes thick, dark lines against light washes
to suggest proximity and distance respectively. Visual travel aids, such
as pathways, bridges, boats on rivers and so on, continue to lead the viewer
through the painting.
