| dc.description.abstract | Leng Mei (1662-1742) was one of the leading painters of the Qing court. He served during the reign of Kangxi and Qianlong. Many records show that Leng Mei was proficient in human figures, especially in ladies, and his works show precise brushwork. However, most of Leng Mei studies were focus on his background, no further interpretations on Leng Mei’s figure painting style. Through the history records and the records in the Zaobanchu Archives, this study will focus on Leng Mei’s life and activities, in order to the dates and the time he entered the court. The main subject of this study is the figure painting of Leng Mei. To specify the characteristics of his style of figure painting by examining his “Ladies”, “Buddhism”, and “Genre” painting.
There are various types of Leng Mei’s Ladies works. Such as the palace ladies, like After Ch’’iu Ying’’s Spring Morning in the Han Palace and Ten Lyrics of the Palace Life; In addition, the subject of the elegant beauty, which includes Reading in the Boudoir, Reading in the Shade of a Banana Palm; Furthermore, the subject of divine beauty, for example, Hsi-Wang-Mu, Ma Gu Gives Her Birthday Greetings. These ladies’ faces are stereotypical: high forehead, sloping eyebrows, phoenix eyes and cherry mouth, and off-shoulder which make the ladies looks more slender and weaker. This stereotypical is originated from Jiao Bingzhen, who was Leng Mei’s teacher. The discussion will investigate the differences between Leng and Jiao’s style of Ladies, and to finds out how he adopted the style and transcend.
In his figure paintings of “Buddhism”, The Lohan album is preserved in Palace Museum. This painting presents the traditional composition of Lee Gong-Lin’s Lohan. Likewise, the lohan is showed as a monk in this album, and sometimes it exchanged identitis of lohan and patriarch. Moreover, Leng Mei painted a lot of genre paintings, such as Spring Evening Banquet at the Peach and Pear Blossom Garden, which represent history narratives. There are also edifying works like Illustrations of Agriculture and Sericulture, which is a connecting link painting of tilling and weaving. And Preservation of Righteousness album was painted for prince. The following discussion will focus on the fact that how Leng Mei functioned and translated western painting elements into his own works.
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