The Formation and Significance of Ni Zan's Landscape Painting of "One River, Two Banks"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52152/heranca.v9i1/1194Keywords:
Schema; Composition; Evolution;"One River Two Banks"; SignificanceAbstract
In his painting practice, Ni Zan gradually developed his personal "One River, Two Banks" landscape schema. His representative works, such as “Autumn Clearing over a Fishing Village (Yuzhuang Qiuji Tu)" and "The Rongxi Studio (Rongxi Zhai Tu)", clearly demonstrate the tripartite composition: a slope in the foreground, a river in the middle, and mountains in the background. Vertically, this composition incorporates Ni Zan's understanding of previous landscape and embodies the essence of traditional schemas. Horizontally, it represents both an adaptation and an innovation of contemporary artistic achievements. Previous studies on Ni Zan's paintings have mostly focused on the evaluation of traditional Chinese painting language, while paying less attention to the patterns of his paintings and the relationship between the patterns and their meanings. Based on extensive research of Ni Zan's literature, this article starts from the iconic "one river ,two banks" composition that Ni Zan established in the middle and late period of the Yuan Dynasty, analyzing its origin, the way it was followed, and the relationship between the pattern and its meaning expression. By using methods such as literature investigation, image analysis, and comparison of Chinese and Western cultures, it provides a detailed interpretation of Ni Zan's paintings, transcending the traditional Chinese painting evaluation vocabulary. The formation of this schema and its use of pictorial elements possess an inherent visual rationality, which aptly coveys Ni Zan's unique personal spirit, making it a classic example of the integration of subject and object.
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