Nanga painting treatises of nineteenth century Japan: Translations,commentary,and analysis.
详细信息
文摘
The Nanga School of Japanese painting developed and reached its heights during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Translations of three nineteenth-century Nanga treatises comprise the core of this dissertation. Although similar Chinese theoretical writings on literati painting have been translated into several languages,these three are the first English translations of Japanese literati painting treatises. Shihekisai gawa Shihekisais Talks on Painting) is based on teachings orally presented by the third-generation literati painter Noro Kaiseki 1747-1828),one of whose art names was Shihekisai. It reportedly was compiled about 1829 from notes recorded by Kaisekis pupils. Sanchujin jozetsu The Prattling of a Mountain Hermit) was written by the fourth-generation Nanga master Tanomura Chikuden 1777-1835)； its preface,dated 1813,indicates that Chikuden had begun writing the work a decade earlier. Musei shiwa Talks on Silent Poetry) by the fifth-generation painter Kanai Uju 1796-1857) is dated 1853 in his preface. After an introductory chapter,the three treatises comprise chapters 2,3,and 4. Chapter 5 presents an analysis and comparison of the three treatises. Only four Nanga painters are mentioned in all three treatises. Yi Fujiu 1698-after 1747) is the single painter mentioned in all three from among a number of Chinese who travelled to Nagasaki on business,but whose painting influenced Nanga artists. Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan,two of the Four Great Masters of the late Yuan,appear in each of the three works. Chapter 6 conclusively identifies three paintings mentioned by title in the treatises as extant works. Descriptions of six other paintings permit their identification with surviving paintings. Chapter 7 relates the content of the treatises to nineteenth-century Japanese literati painting,and chapter 8 constitutes a conclusion. Each of the three generations represented successively by the treatises seems to be increasingly unsure about the survival of both the socio-economic system in which these painters lived,despite their attempts to distance themselves from it,and the vitality of their school of painting. Their treatises served to acknowledge their mentors and encourage their successors in the uncertain circumstances of the times.