Search results
On a Mountain Path in Spring (山徑春行) Ma Yuan (ca.1160–1225), Song Dynasty. Album leaf, ink and color on silk, 27.4 x 43.1 cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei. Emperor Ningzong’s poem inscribed in the upper right corner reads, “The wild flowers dance when brushed by my sleeves.
Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring (Chinese: 山徑春行) is a painting by Chinese artist Ma Yuan (c. 1160-1225). It is painted on an album leaf, which also contains Emperor Ningzong of Song 's poem inscribed in the upper right corner.
- 27.4 cm × 43.1 cm (10.8 in × 17.0 in)
- Southern Song Dynasty
- Overview
- Early life and works
- Landscape painting
- Later works and influence
Ma Yuan (born c. 1160/65, Qiantang [now Hangzhou], Zhejiang province—died 1225) influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for ...
Ma was born into a family of court painters: his great grandfather, Ma Fen, had been daizhao (i.e., painter in attendance) at the Northern Song court about 1119–25; both his grandfather Ma Xingzu and his father, Ma Shirong, held the same rank at the Southern Song court in the middle decades of the 12th century. Ma Yuan began his career under the emperor Xiaozong, became daizhao under Emperor Guangzong, and received the highest Chinese honour, the Golden Belt, under Emperor Ningzong. He died in about 1225. His son Ma Lin, the last of the Ma artistic dynasty, rose to be painter-in-waiting, zhihou. Apart from these bare facts, practically nothing is known about Ma’s life. Being neither a scholar nor an official, he did not leave a body of his own writings and he did not earn a biography in the dynastic history. He seems, however, to have been in high favour at court, particularly under Ningzong, who, with his empress, Yang Meizi, wrote poems or short inscriptions inspired by a number of his paintings.
Britannica Quiz
Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?
Ma occasionally painted flowers and figure subjects. A group of small, delicate flower paintings in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, are attributed to him. Typically, a single spray of blossoms lies poised in empty space across the square album leaf. One of these works is signed, and two bear couplets written by Yang. There are also three paintings of Zen masters in simple landscape settings, two of them in Tenryū Temple, Kyōto, Japan, the third in the Tokyo National Museum, which, though not signed, bear inscriptions considered to be in the handwriting of Yang. They all have certain similar features of technique that have led some Japanese authorities to attribute them to Ma.
It was in landscape painting that Ma’s genius lay. He executed a number of large landscape screens, all of which are now lost. He also painted tall, hanging scrolls in which, according to an early Chinese writer, “there are steep mountains rising imposingly, with streams winding around them and waterfalls partly hidden among the trees.” The author ...
By the late 12th century, however, this style was changing, and the new elements that were appearing reflected the nostalgic and somewhat precious atmosphere of the exiled court at Lin’an. In some hanging scrolls attributed to Ma, and in many of the exquisite small album and fan paintings, the mountains are pushed to one side, creating a “one corner” composition; between the distant mountains and the strongly accented foreground rocks, where a scholar may be sitting enjoying the view, lies a vast expanse of empty space with but a suggestion of mist or water. Many of Ma’s pictures are romantic night scenes. A particularly moving hanging scroll of this kind, attributed to him and bearing a long poem composed by the emperor and written by Yang, is the unsigned version of the Banquet by Lantern Light in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Such paintings are redolent of a poetic melancholy that hints at the decay of Song culture, and the pictorial expression of this feeling is often rather conventional. The one-sided composition, the jutting pine tree silhouetted against empty space, the meditating scholar, and the brilliant brush technique of Ma all lent themselves easily to imitation. His style was popular with late Song painters, men and women, professionals and amateurs, and it is often difficult to separate the genuine fans and album leaves by Ma from those of his followers. Among the best of the surviving works are Early Spring and Two Sages and an Attendant beneath a Plum Tree, both in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Watching the Deer by a Pine-shaded Stream, in the Mr. and Mrs. Dean Perry Collection, Cleveland, Ohio; and On a Mountain Path in Spring, a signed album leaf bearing a couplet written by the emperor Ningzong, in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Students save 67%! Learn more about our special academic rate today.
Learn More
Finally, a small group of hand scrolls shows another facet of Ma’s genius. Most striking, and most likely to be from his hand, is the picture The Four Sages of Shangshan (recluses who lived at the beginning of the Han dynasty), in the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio. Although damaged and poorly restored, the picture presents a dramatic contrast between the vital handling of the landscape and raging torrent and the extreme delicacy and precision of the figures of the scholars and their attendants, qualities that suggest the hand of a great master. The scroll is signed and bears 40 colophons or seals of the various owners, including one by the noted Yuan dynasty scholar-painter Ni Zan (1301–74). A signed long scroll of mountains and pine trees in deep winter snow in the Imperial Museum in Beijing, though roughly painted, is an extremely impressive work that may be a product of Ma’s old age.
The romantic landscape style of the Southern Song academicians such as Ma, his son Ma Lin, and Xia Gui went out of fashion after the fall of the dynasty in 1279. It was revived in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) as a form of decorative academicism by professional painters of the so-called Zhe school. The style was not greatly admired by gentlemen and connoisseurs, who considered it too brilliantly professional for their taste. As a result, few high-quality paintings of the Ma-Xia school survived in China outside the imperial collection. Their work, however, found favour in Japan, where it was a powerful influence in forming the style of the great ink painters Shūbun (early 15th century) and Sesshū and of the early masters of the Kanō school during the Muromachi period (1338–1573).
Inspired by a true story, Invincible recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a desperate quest for freedom. ‘Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring’ was created in 1190 by Ma Yuan in Ink and wash painting style.
Ma Yuan · Walking on path in Spring. c.1190 – Ink on silk – National Palace Museum, Taipei. “Outside, the fog has lifted, the dark mountains have faded, the murmur of the rushing River resonates in your head, and that is enough.”. This work by Ma Yuan is one of the unquestionable masterpieces of Chinese Art. As in many other of his ...
People also ask
Who painted Walking on a mountain path in spring?
Who is Ma Yuan?
How did Ma Yuan develop a personal style?
Who influenced Ma Yuan?
Oct 12, 2017 · A detail of Chinese artist Ma Yuan's "On a Mountain Path in Spring". 1190-1225 CE. Ink and colour on silk. (National Museum, Taipei, Taiwan).
