| dc.description.abstract | Wu Wei (1459-1508) was a painter with distinguishing characteristics both in personality and art. He was a legend in his own lifetime. Wu Wei was adored as a hero and a immortal by two emperors in Ming Dynasty, and he was laurelled the title of “Hua Zhuang Yuan” which means “The Best Painter” that no one ever owned in art history. With good fortune, Wu Wei never had a hard time in his career. Wu Wei was proficient in paintings of landscapes, figures, and birds and flowers. The landscape and figure painting were especially outstanding in Chinese painting history. The style of Wu Wei’s art was famous for the eccentric as well as the refinement. This study will focus on the figure painting of Wu Wei.
Nanjing was the major city where Wu Wei worked and lived in. He painted a lot about the culture and the lifestyle of this metropolis. The romances that happened at the Chin-Huai river were the best inspiration to him. Wu Wei knew various intellectual and sponsors who could support his career in Nanjing, a prosperous and vanity city. Wu Wei lived there indulgently and was very creative without any restrictions. He spent all his life and talent in this ancient capital and could not dismiss the beautiful scenery from his mind.
It was important to live and paint freely for Wu Wei. He liked drinking, reveling and having parties with courtesans, and those experiences of life revealed abundantly in his pictures. He also was in favor of painting the image of prostitute. In Ming dynasty, lots of paintings were about the romances between literati and prostitute. Except Wu Wei, many other painters, such as Tang Ying, usually drew in an obscure way on this subject. However, Wu Wei expressed his experiences with courtesans by paintings in a direct way. “The Ladies” is the masterpiece which combined tightly of his personality, the life, and the creativity. The unorthodox behavior and the great imagination of Wu Wei also showed in his Taoist and Buddhism Painting. The immortal of the figure was often another image of himself. Also, the vigorous and striking brush made the viewers can’t ignore the existence of the painter. Therefore, Wu Wei connected successfully himself with the figure in the painting. “The Genre” is another amazing painting of Wu Wei to show the beggars. In the same era of Wu Wei, another famous painter called Chou Chen used a serious and pessimistic way to express the beggars. But Wu Wei described those people of low positions in the society in a humorous and optimistic way. It is Wu Wei’s unconventional behaviors to make him so different to other painters.
Wu Wei’s style name, “Hsiao-hsien,” which means “Little Immortal” can fully identified the unrestrained personality. The reasons for Wu Wei was highly praised and adored were not only his brilliant skills and charm but also the passion and delight that was conveyed through his painting. Wu Wei was both a court and professional painter in Ming Dynasty. He was highly admired and commended by emperors, nobilities, and those intellectuals lived in Beijing, Nanjing and Suzhou city. He had deep influential in Chinese painting and got great fame and achievements in art. | en_US |