| Abstrakt: |
Up the River During Qingming was one of the most popular titles in the history of Chinese painting, with versions being done in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. The Qing Court Version of Up the River During Qingming (hereafter abbreviated as the Qing Court Version) is one of the more important achievements by the Qing court in the heritage of this title. Though this painting is dated to the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month of the Qianlong Emperor’s first full year on the throne (corresponding to January 15, 1737), it is actually a large-scale project that ha been begun back in the sixth year of the Yongzheng Emperor’s reign (1728). The Qing Court Version is therefore obviously a painting project that spanned much of the Yongzheng before completion in the Qianlong reign. This study analyzes the heritage and transformation of court painting styles in the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns via this handscroll in order to probe its significance in Chinese painting history. First, the present study explains the activities and stylistic features of the five artists involved in producing the Quing Court Version in an attempt to reconstruct the sequence to its production and to show the forms of expression from the Yongzheng to early Qianlong reign founding this work. This is followed by clarification of the visual origins of the Qing Court Version, starting with comparison to Shen Yuan’s painting of Up the River During Qingming that is extremely similar, thereby indicating the qualities of Shen’s draft. Afterwards is a comparison with some Ming dynasty versions, clarifying how the Qing Court Version assembled together visual characteristics of these versions and demonstrating it as a grand synthesis that is an attempt at a new production of an old title. One of the purposes of the present study is to not only demonstrate that the Qing Court Version is an innovative grand synthesis of and old and classic title, but more importantly to analyze the techniques and stylistic methods by which it was achieved, thereby clarifying in substantive terms the transformative significance and achievements of the Painting Academy at the Yongzheng court. To clarify the results of the Painting Academy in the Yongzheng reign, the present study also uses Giuseppe Castiglione’s A Hundred Steeds as testimony. In the research, effort is made to examine the duality if Western and Chinese painting styles exhibited in that work. On the one hand, different stages in the style of Castiglione are examined from surviving paintings to gradually understand the un-Chinese, un-Western techniques of A Hundred Steeds. On the other hand, various court archival records also help outline the attitude of the Yongzheng Emperor and his court towards Western perspective. According to Nian Xiyao’s book Study of Perspective completed in the Yongzheng reign, the use of Western perspective was by no means an un-Chinese production, but rather a process by which the viewer could obtain its truth. And precisely because of this, such works as A Hundred Steeds and the Qing Court Version are not only new interpretations of old painting titles, but more importantly actually expressions of this realm of truth sought by the Qing court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
