A Study On The Formal Structure Of Point-and-Point Pen And Ink In Lin Liang's Guan Mu Ji Qin Tu

Freehand bird-and-flower paintings reached their peak in the Ming Dynasty and Lin Liang was an important representative best at such paintings in that period.His freehand bird-and-flower paintings were highly evaluated of the court paintings then.Of powerful strokes,cursive scripts,grandness and magnificence,his works developed into a distinctive school among the imperial-court decorative paintings in the Ming Dynasty.His brilliant artistic achievements not simply exhibited his own high artistic stature but also upgraded bird-and-flower paintings to a new level thanks to his ingenious freehand skills.He is a painter worth studying and exploration from either theoretical or practical perspective.The Birds in the Bush,Lin Liang's Chinese ink painting with coloring,measuring 34 cm in length and 1211 cm in width and collected in the Palace Museum,is a rarely seen masterpiece of freehand bird-and-flower paintings.With its mature panoramic layout,it shows the vigor and vitality,as well as the interesting mix of birds and flowers.The structure of drawing of the painting serves as the God-given historical data for the painting practitioners to study the bird-and-flower paintings of the Ming Dynasty.research meaningThe paper is originated from the author's imitation of and reflection on the Birds in the Bush.Although it is a research of Lin's work,it does not merely superficially study the specific contents of the painting but also perceives the aesthetic value and visual attraction of Lin Liang's bird-and-flower paintings with a certain width and depth,aiming to flexibly apply the attained knowledge in future painting.Current research results of this topicLin Liang is a trailblazer in freehand bird-and-flower paintings,but the literature about him is few.So it is hard to conduct research on his art achievements.The comments were previously made about him to the effect that: “Lin Liang,courtesy name Yishan,born in Guangdong,served as the commander and military commissioner of Jinyiwei(secret service of the Ming Dynasty)at the imperial palace during the Chenghua and Hongzhi periods,and is skilled at freehand painting of fruit,feathers,reed,dead trees and wild vine and the like,especially the themes on eagle and swan goose”4 or “the fruits or feathers have delicate colors,and birds and trees on Chinese ink painting are as vigorous as cursive script,leaving others in the dust.”5 Nowadays,although Lin Liang's painting art has attracted more and more attention from the scholars,the early research is mainly a brief summary in the entire history of painting,mainly introducing the painter's life.Or making a comprehensive evaluation of his artistic characteristics through the study of his overall style of painting.The comments about Lin Liang are like “Although his works are not entirely divorced from the ‘imperial-court decorative painting' limitations,he demonstrates his own style,...can be described as the pioneer of freehand brushwork of bird-and flower painting in the Ming Dynasty”.6 Then,more literature about Lin Liang and his art of painting begins to emerge,including the Specialized research of the life of Lin Liang and Lyu Ji(article),Series Books on Chinese Master Artists-Lin Liang and Transmission and groups of Chinese painting-imperial-court decorative painting of the Ming Dynasty written and edited by Mr.Shan Guoqiang.He has made a systematic listing and analysis of Lin Liang's life,occupation and transmission and school as well as his painting features,causes of styles,achievements made and representative works.Research method and innovative points of this paperBased on the historical data,this paper aims to study Lin Liang's brushwork structure characteristics on the basis of previous scholars' achievements.Based on the principle of “seeing the whole through a part”,this paper chooses Lin Liang's Guan Mu Ji Qin Tu(Birds gathering in shrubs)as the starting point to study the “Diandu method(adding casual touches to a painting)” in the structural characteristics of his painting.This paper analyzes the causes of Lin Liang's Diandu method and its aesthetic characteristics,and,through the image structure of birds,trees,rocks and so on in Guan Mu Ji Qin Tu,learns how he combines the technique of Diandu method,as well as the different Diandu methods used for different plants and birds.This paper makes an in-depth study of the various brush-ink languages in the Guan Mu Ji Qin Tu such as the combination between sketching,wrinkling and rubbing,rendering and layout with “Diandu method”,in a bid to explore the overall formal structure of painting based on the “Diandu method” painting language.Then,it analyzes the influence of this technique on the bird-and-flower painting in the subsequent dynasties,and its inspiration to the contemporary creation.