Study On Authenticity And Analysis Of Tang Yin's Painting And Calligraphy

Due to their delicate style and profound influence,the works of the Four Great Masters of the Ming dynasty have been so well received since the Mid-Ming Dynasty that the paintings on the market became scarce and exensive.As a consequence,a large amount of forgery produced in diverse methods poured into market.Tang Yin,the gifted one who enjoyed higher popularity than other three masters,is a versatile artist commanding a wide range of styles and subjects and always left no inscriptions on his works,which in turn brought about a great deal of counterfeit attributed to him.In addition,the firsthand material about Tang Yin is sparse,yet the rumor or folklore is numerous.The contradictory and unidentified recordings add to the difficulty in comprehending Tang Yin's artistic development clearly and systematically.There is also a lack of scholarly monographs focusing on Tang Yin's art activities and the definition of his oeuvre.This dissertation will concentrate on distinguishing brushwork style of Tang Yin's painting and calligraphy and authenticating his works.Tang Yin's artistic inheritance from elders will be discussed through visual and text material in the first place.Secondly,based on certain features discerned by classifying the standard works selected in terms of chronology and category,the development of Tang Yin's delicate style can be sort out.Finally,employing these touchstones as criteria,the creation time of some works can be detected and some disputed works can also be authenticated.Apart from that,this dissertation will also pay attention to the topic of forgery including the issue of some other hand substituted for Tang Yin in painting.The dissertation is composed of seven chapters.In a review of the current academic achievements in the first chapter,it can be noted that the monographs dealing with authentication are few and not systematic,which means there is still space to extend this study.In order to separate the authentic works from the fake ones,the dissertation will be carried out by means of case study through observing,contrasting and criticizing under the criteria of period style and personal style as well as many other supporting information.Tang Yin's life and social network will be introduced in Chapter 2 first as the background to comprehend his artistic experiences.On the basis of counting and classifying the available works,calligraphy and painting will be discussed separately while paintings will be classified by subjects,namely landscape painting,figure painting,flower-and-bird painting and paintings featuring withered trees,bamboos and rocks.After that,Tang Yin's dated work will be selected and sited historically.Finally,Tang Yin's seals will be combed through briefly.Chapter 3 will attend to the topic of calligraphy.Under the indirect influence of Li Yingzhen,Tang Yin traced back to the calligraphy style of Tang and Song dynasty to develop his own brush style.25 authentic works classified into 3 developing stages will be identified in this chapter.Tang Yin studied mainly the style of Ouyang Xun and Li Yong before 36 so that the characters he wrote were thin and powerful.From 36 to 45 is the second stage of development when he drew nourishment mainly from Yan Zhenqing and Zhao Mengfu to create a broad,plain and somewhat peculiar look.After combining different styles at about 45,his brushwork was graceful,fit and vigorous.The period styles discovered above will help detect the creation time of his undated works.In addition,four copies named 'The poems of fallen flowers' attributed to Tang Yin will be discussed and 3 of them will be proved to be fake.The forth chapter will focus on Tang Yin's scholar-amateur landscape painting.The traditional opinions to put him in Wu School affected by the theory of Southern and Northern Schools are general and unbiased as he traced back to the style of Tang and Song dynasty while studying both academy and scholar-amateur painting under the influence ofShen Zhou and Zhou Chen.In view of the facts,this chapter will classify his 16 authentic landscape painting by category and chronology.Affected by Shen Zhou in the first stage,tracing back to the style in Song and Yuan dynasty to form a style featuring both academy and scholar-amateur painting in the middle stage and showing strong and rugged spirit in the late stage,Tang Yin,s artistic activities can be divided into 3 periods.Secondly,two landscape painting style,namely scholar-amateur and near-academy,will be discussed separately.Given the name 'alias paintings',the scholar-amateur landscape paintings are mostly ink and wash ones on long scrolls catering to the aesthetic standards of scholars.Creating a new form of wrinkling close to gossamer,Tang Yin always used fine,elegant and long texture lines to paint rocks.Finally,5 scholar-amateur landscape paintings will be authenticated based on the different brushwork style.The painting styles close to academy paintings will be discussed next.Referred to the painting style of Zhou Chen and turning back to the style of academy paintings in Southern Song dynasty,Tang yin developed hatching strokes known as "small ax" into long and humid texture lines,named "gossamer with wet brash and strokes".It has been widely spread since the late Ming that Zhou Chen always painted in the substitution of Tang Yin.Contrasting the brushwork of Tang Yin and Zhou Chen after dissection,it can be detected that the opinions to attribute 7 paintings to Zhou Chen in the substitution of Tang Yin are not true.The text materials help to reach the conclusion that Zhou Chen just substituted for Tang Yin occasionally.In contrast,it is more than likely the case that many works belonging to Zhou Chen School were attributed to Tang Yin and were misunderstood generation by generation.12 paintings will be discussed then and the influence of Tang Yin's landscape painting and his forgery will also be took into consideration.The sixth chapter will discuss figure paintings,flower-and-bird paintings and paintings featuring withered trees,bamboos and rocks.4 categories:ladies,allusions,alias and figures applied to scenery,will be classified.Taking root in the style of Du Jin,Zhou Chen,Wu Wei and the paintings in Tang and Song dynasty,skillful and freehand painting styles can be both found,according to which,the chapter will discuss 9 of them.Tang Yin's flower-and-bird paintings studied after Shen Zhou and Lin Liang to develop a style characterizes both simplicity and exquisite taste.The paintings featuring withered trees,bamboos and rocks fellow the tradition established by Su Shi,Wen Tong and Li Kan in Song and Yuan dynasty,describing the image under natural law while keeping the expressive strength.Finally,2 flower-and-bird paintings will be proved to be fake.The topic of the copies in bamboo paintings will also be discussed.In the final section of the dissertation,the conclusion will be drawn that instead of the premature features that Tang Yin's paintings was accepted to have traditionally,there is barely no authentication he created before the age of 30.However,the early works he painted before 30 reveal that he digested and integrated a wide array of styles to establish his own.After 40,he developed Zhou Chen's brushwork style and reached maturity in both academy and scholar-amateur paintings.In late stage of his artistic experiences,he melted what he learned to form bold and graceful strokes of the brush.Through analyzing his works by means of category and chronology,this dissertation has implemented sorting of the standard works and clarified the development of his style,which will provide a clear perspective and help authenticate the real and genuine.