1254 -1322 · From Song to Yuan, renaissance of antiquity and literate painting

Archaic mountains, calligraphic lines and fidelity to memory make Zhao Mengfu one of the major founders of literate painting under the Yuan.

Zhao Mengfu was born in 1254 in Wuxing, today Huzhou, and died in 1322. Descending from the Song imperial house, he grew up in a China disrupted by the Mongol conquest. In 1286, Kublai Khan called him to the service of the Yuan dynasty. This decision, long discussed by scholars, nevertheless allowed him to occupy high positions, to travel between the South and the capital and to become a decisive figure in court culture. Zhao excels in calligraphy, poetry and several pictorial genres: landscape, horses, bamboo, rocks and portraits. Against the descriptive refinement of the end of the Song, he claimed a creative return to the old masters. Archaism is not in him a servile copy, but a means of rediscovering the structure of the line. His trees, rocks and mountain lines are constructed like written characters; painting and calligraphy share the same energy of the brush. Autumn colors on Mounts Qiao and Hua, executed in 1295 or 1296 for his friend Zhou Mi, gives the most famous example. Zhao paints from memory two mountains of Shandong that Zhou, a man from the South, had never seen. The singular profiles of the mountains, villages, waters and trees that Zhou, a man from the South, had never seen. The singular profiles of the mountains, villages, waters and trees are distributed in a deliberately ancient perspective. The blues, greens and lands recall the landscapes of the Tang, while the dry drawing and the discontinuous space announce a fully literate conception: the work is as valuable as a memory, scholarly conversation and gesture of friendship as as a description of a place. Its influence spans the entire Yuan dynasty. The Four Great Masters, then the painters Ming and Qing, took up his idea that a modern work can be renewed by dialoguing with antiquity. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His wife Guan Daosheng and his son Zhao Yong also participated in this brilliant family of artists. His "Z

In Zhao Mengfu, returning to the ancients does not mean going backwards: the calligraphic brush transforms the memory of the landscape into a modern invention.