Ink Painting of Grapes
3 min readPainter: Xu Wei
Painting Year: the Ming Dynasty
Material: silk scrol1
Dimension: vertical length of 165.7 centimeters and horizontal length of 64.5 centimeters Collection Place: the Palace Museum in Beijing
Ink Painting of Grape is representative painting of flower and bird in excessively freehand style, which was made by Xu Wei in the Ming Dynasty. It depicts a cluster of wild grapes. In this masterpiece, glittering and translucent fruits hang in the flourishing branches.
This artwork features unrestrained brushwork and incisive ink color. Leaves, grapes and branches turn into abstract and charning composition of spot, line and surface. The creation is not intended to depict grapes, but rather innermost grief. The inscribed poem also reveals his complaints for great vicissitudes and frustrations despite his great talents.
The poem, inscribed on the painting in cursive script, can be interpreted as follows:”I become down and out in my old age.I shout alone in my study room. My meticulous paintings are nsalable so that they are abandoned like wild grapes on the dead rattans.”The inclined posture and variance of characters imply the great vicissitudes in u Wei’s lifetime.
Art Master
Xu Wei(1521-1593)
Xu Wei, with alias of Wenchang, was a famous painter and dramatist of the Ming Dynasty, who was a native of Shanyin (today’s Shaoxing, Zhejiang). He was good at poetry. In particular he created painting of flower and bird in excessively freehand style, with great infuence on following generations.
Despite great talents, Xu Wei suffered from adversity in his lifetime. On the hundredth day after his born, his father passed away. In adulthood, his wife died early. Xu Wei failed in Provincial-level Examination eight times. He made several attempted suicides, and almost went to piece. Later, he accidentally beat his second wife to death, who was jailed for seven years. After leaving prison, he lived in poverty and sold off his property. In old age, he became more poverty-stricken and died in misery.
The leaves are painted with oblique brush movement, with much moist and radiant inkcharm Grapes are spotted with light ik in central brush movement to form random composition with relative density. Branches are painted with dry brush like callier a phylines. Painter seeks after the fun in the ink and expression of emotions rather than realistic portray.
Xu Wei and traditional Chinese drama
Xu Wei was not only a famous calligrapher and painter, but also dranatist as great master in the traditional Chinese drama history. In the field of historical essay for drama, he authored Nan Ci Xu Lu, thefirst book focusing on origin and development of Nanxi (a kind of local classical drama in South China) in systematic manner, with signifcant value in the traditional Chinese opera history. In terms of drama script, he authoredSi Sheng Yuan andGe Dai Xiao (the eldest absurd plays in China) which were born more than 300 years earlier than the Western absurdist drama.
Painting in freehand style
Painting in freeh and style is a category of the traditional Chinese painting. Compared with painting in elaborate style, painting in freehand style focuses on distortion and summarization rather than refinedment and resemblance, seeks after calligraphy charms, and emphasizes the interaction and penetration of thick, light, dry and wet ink colors. Painters often express individual emotions and thoughts rather than depict Do You Know?
Paintings of the Ming Dynasty
Paintings of the Ming Dynasty featured a variety of painting schools which sprang up like mushrooms. In brief, in the early Ming Dynasty, court paintings revived; in the mid Ming Dynasty, Wumen Painting School had greatest infuence; in the late Ming Dynasty, Xu Wei was representative master for painting of flower and bird in excessively freehand style; Dong Qichang (Huating Painting School) had greatest infuence for painting of landscape, and Chen Hongshou made great achievements for painting of fgure.
inscribed on cursive hand features inclined posture and
xu Wei had alias of “Tianchi” also had alias of”Qingteng Taoist.”
Grapevines intertwine and drop with luxuriant foliage.
Bunches of grapes are crystal like pearls between grapevines and leaves.
Thin and tough branches，moist leaves and sparse fruits are spotlights here.The contrast between withering—and vigor，between concentration and scatter and.
