Zhao Mengfu and Zao Wou-ki by Wang Shuai

Bathing Horses by Zhao Mengfu (between 1254 and 1322)

At the beginning of 2021, as the epidemic situation eased, my calligraphy teacher and I visited the Forbidden City Museum. At first, our aim was to examine Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy works. Walking through the fluctuating architectural space of the long imperial path, we felt an invisible and growing spiritual pressure, awed by the grandeur of the building and its illustrious history. Finally, entering a wide square through the Taihe gate we saw the glorious Wuying hall, the Zhao Mengfu exhibition hall. The exhibition was displaying Zhao Mengfu's paintings as well as his calligraphy works. I stopped to look long at a huge scroll, the colours and content drawing me in.

 

Zhao MengFu (1255-1322), a great calligrapher and painter of his generation, lived a life of complex contradictions, glory and embarrassment. A descendant of the Song Dynasty Royal family, after the Song Dynasty was overthrown by the Mongol army that established the Yuan Dynasty (1272-1368), he willingly accepted foreign rule and held a series of government posts. The Yuan Dynasty in which Zhao Mengfu lived was ruled by the Mongolian army, a "nation on horseback". The long historical and cultural background related to horses naturally affected Zhao Mengfu. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Mongol descendants of the Yuan Dynasty, of course, loved horses very much and had a special liking for them. Zhao Mengfu was ordered to make a painting of bathing horses.[1]

 

The work shows us a vivid scene of bathing horses. On a bank of weeping willows, nine herdsmen are showering fourteen horses by the stream. The scene is divided into three parts: entering the stream, bathing and leaving the stream. The layout of the picture is exquisite, the colours are elegant. In it the herdsmen talk to each other, the streams are clear and transparent, the shade of the weeping willows is detailed. The horses in the painting have different postures and vivid expressions. Some stand in the water, some drink water or eat grass, some hold their heads high and neigh, and some lie down and look around. The herdsmen lead their horses to the stream, or bathe them, or take a nap on the bank. The figures and pommel horses are painted in different colors, rich, rich and beautiful, so that the colours do not hide the penmanship. The stroke line is fine, the color is soft and changeable, and the style is fresh and beautiful. ‘Bathing Horses’ painting represents the typical style of Zhao Mengfu's horse painting. It is an artistic masterpiece in both form and spirit, the style exquisite and elegant. The painting style is modeled after the Tang people. It is both ancient and elegant. It is seen as the ‘literati painting’ (Wenrenhua) of the Yuan Dynasty.

 

Through Zhao Mengfu's ‘Bathing Horses’, a typical oriental traditional painting, I fell into deep thought and realised that the development process of Eastern and Western art may differ significantly, the forms of expression and media used in different ways. For example, in China, the traditional painting medium is usually ink painting, while in the West, egg colour painting, oil painting and watercolour are used more. But no matter the ideological core of art, we can find common ground though. Since the 20th century, groups of artists have devoted themselves to promoting exchange and integration between Eastern and Western art. Their different creative paths have jointly created a new art scroll movement. Zao Wou-ki is a representative figure of this developing tradition. He started from China, opened the way with Western abstract art, and finally established his own aesthetic style. In 1921, Zao Wou-ki was born in Beijing and had a good family environment. Later, due to his father's job transfer, his family moved to Nantong. In his childhood, Zao’s family would take out their calligraphy and painting collection to study, including authentic works by Zhao Mengfu and Mi Dai. In Zao Wou-ki's ‘Et la Terre était sans forme’, 1956-1957, he shows that the character symbols are of great significance, they are the center of gravity of the picture.[2] Oracle bone script inscriptions are regarded as the earliest stereotyped characters in China, which originated from the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1046 BC). The scattered words move from one place to another on the huge canvas, floating on the unformed earth, revealing the initial appearance of the universe with the beginning of chaos. With the artist's use of light brown, burnt ochre, orange, black and other colour changes, different levels of depth and spatial sense are generated between the virtual light and shadow fluctuations. Zao Wou-ki arranges the black characters horizontally in the middle, so the picture is separated from the top to the bottom. The upper part is set off by pink and beige oil colours. If the light source is shining, the lower part is gathered and scattered by the font structure to form a light and dark relationship of front and back stacking.

 

Through the two artists, Zhao Mengfu and Zao Wou-ki , who span nearly 700 years, I also feel the difference between the Western art system and Oriental Art, and have a new understanding of both. The comparison of the similarities and differences between the two is conducive to the exchange and development of the two great art traditions, blending and absorbing with each other to obtain even greater vitality. Therefore, it is illuminating to compare Chinese landscape painting, a representative of Eastern art, with landscape painting, a tributary of Western culture, to see the differences between Chinese and Western art and the great achievements of both.


[1]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zhao_Mengfu._Bathing_Horses._28.1_x_155.5_cm_Palace_Museum,_Beijing..jpg

[2]https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Et-la-terre-etait-sans-forme/28B5956163CECED3

 

Helen Wing