La planète Saturne par le peintre chinois Zhang Sengyou (VIe siècle)

Zhang Sengyou ( Chinese: , Zhāng Sēngyóu) was a famous

Liang dynasty The Liang dynasty (), alternatively known as the Southern Liang () in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the third of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. It was preceded by the South ...

painter in the

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thi ...

style in the reign of

Emperor Wu of Liang Emperor Wu of Liang () (464 – 12 June 549), personal name Xiao Yan (蕭衍), courtesy name Shuda (叔達), childhood name Lian'er (練兒), was the founding emperor of the Chinese Liang dynasty, during the Northern and Southern dynasties perio ...

. His birth and death years are unknown, but he was active ''circa'' 490–540. He was from

Wu Commandery Wu Commandery was a commandery of imperial China. It covers parts of the contemporary Northern Zhejiang and Southern Jiangsu. The capital of Wu commandery was Wu (today's Suzhou). Major counties of Wu commandery include Wu (county), Yuhang county, ...

(around present-day

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

Background and reputation

Zhang was a member of Zhang clan of Wu, one of the four prominent clans in

. According to

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

art critic

Zhang Yanyuan Zhang may refer to: Chinese culture, etc. * Zhang (surname) (張/张), common Chinese surname ** Zhang (surname 章), a rarer Chinese surname * Zhang County (漳县), of Dingxi, Gansu * Zhang River (漳河), a river flowing mainly in Henan * ''Zha ...

's " Notes of Past Famous Paintings", Zhang served as an official during the reign of

. He was the director of the imperial library and was also in charge of any painting related affairs in the court of Emperor Wu. Later, Zhang served the country as the general of right flank army and the governor of

Wuxing Commandery Wuxing may refer to: Places in China Counties and districts * Huzhou, formerly Wuxing County, Zhejiang, China *Wuxing District (吴兴区), central district of Huzhou Subdistricts (五星街道) * Wuxing Subdistrict, Mudanjiang, in Dong'an Distri ...

. His works were rated the finest quality by Zhang Yanyuan. He also listed Zhang's artistic style as one of the four "Standards" of the traditional Chinese paintings; the other three artists were

Gu Kaizhi Gu Kaizhi (; c. 344–406), courtesy name Changkang (), was a Chinese painter and politician. He was a celebrated painter of ancient China.Cihai: Page 1846. He was born in Wuxi and first painted at Nanjing in 364. In 366, he became an officer (Da ...

, Lu Tanwei and

Wu Daozi Wu Daozi (c. 685–758 CE or c. 689–759 CE), also known as Daoxuan and Wu Tao Tzu, was a Chinese painter of the Tang dynasty. The British art historian Michael Sullivan considers him one of "the masters of the seventh century,"Chen Dynasty, described Zhang as a diligent painter who paints "without the notion of day and night". Zhang was especially skillful in depicting human or animal figures. According to the

History of the Southern Dynasties The ''History of the Southern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. It contain 80 volumes and covers the period from 420 to 589, the histories of Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang dyn ...

, Zhang painted a portrait for Prince Wuling, one of the sons of Emperor Wu of Liang. After viewing his son's portrait, the Emperor was amazed by the verisimilitude of Zhang's painting.

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

with all its iconography, came to China from India, bringing with it to China a Western influence at one remove. Pictorial forms thus acquired a certain three-dimensional quality. Zhang Sengyou, working in the early sixth century, painted large murals of Buddhist shrines in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. He was one of the first to use these influences with happy results. He was also well known for landscapes, especially snow scenery, with a reputation for the so-called "boneless" technique (''

mogu Mogu () is a painting skill or technique in traditional Chinese painting. It literally means "boneless". On paintings in the style of mogu, forms are made by ink and color washes rather than by outlines. Derivation of the name There are mainly ...

''). Zhang is also associated with a famous story. It is said that one day, having painted four dragons on the walls of Anle temple in Jinling, he did not mark the pupil, not by negligence but prudence. However, one person, unwilling to heed Zhang's warnings, painted in the eyes of two dragons, causing the dragons to immediately flee to heaven riding on clouds with crashing thunder. Marking the eyes of dragons opens their eyes and gives them life. The spirit is fleeting, omnipresent, so that grasping and fixing it in a painting gives his work an uncanny power of suggestion. This story, summarized in the

chengyu ''Chengyu'' () are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expression, most of which consist of four characters. ''Chengyu'' were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language t ...

(), is used in modern Chinese as a metaphor to describe a written work or speech that lacks only a small element which would make it perfect.

References

{{reflist

External links

"Bring the Painted Dragons to Life by Putting Pupils in Their Eyes"
Liang dynasty painters Painters from Suzhou Liang dynasty politicians Politicians from Suzhou Buddhist artists