Shen Zhou's Landscape Painting Style And Subject Matter Of The Study

This thesis is an attempt to penetrate "the inner factors" why Shen Chou became the founder of The Wu School of painting. To attain the objective, I focus on both the "style" and the "theme" of Shen Chou's landscape paintings. On one hand, the deriving inspiration from the tradition and the innovation for new phase of Shen Chou's style is probed through his authentic works; on the other hand , Shen Chou's origin and creativity in the image of theme and the essence of style is analyzed in order to define his real art achievement . I have discerned that the weakness of former scholars' research on Shen Chou's art is resulted from the lack of serious attitude towards the genuineness of his works and the verification of historical data. Therefore, I not only bring together the examination the verification, but also apply the iconology and the style analysis to confirm the authenticity of the works and the historical documents. Particularly, I cite a rather large amount of firsthand material of Shen Chou-Shin-Tien Kao ?the only manuscript which has never been investigated by the former scholars. Thus, this copy carries a main benefit to the correctness of my research.In this study, I specifically track the authentic art works, exploring the origin and the manner of Shen Chou's paintings. I also indicate the verification on the origin and deduction more theoretically and practically than the former scholars. Furthermore, with the classification and research of the theme, I demonstrate how Shen Chou reached the point where the inner subject, the icon and the style were really innovated. All my study is the primary part which the former scholars could not solve or had the wrong understanding. Therefore, it is only when we obtain the right comprehension that we can truly realize the key point why Shen Chou was the founder of Wu School.