Bulletin Number One 1985

232 X 730 cm scenes in the Qing dynasty. Yet, because of their professional status, very little information on their lives can be found. Even when their names appear in painting histories, they are mentioned only briefly. Being prolific painters during their respective lifetimes, a fair amount of their works has survived to this day and bears testimony to their contribution to Yangzhou painting in the eighteenth century. The most spectacular painting from the Yuan Jiang school in this exhibition is a twelve-penalled panoramic Landscape with Pavilions among Pines and Bamboo (Plate 6) by Yuan Jiang himself. Measuring 232cm in height and 730cm in width, the painting takes up almost the entire wall in our exhibition gallery. The continuous panels unfold a wide vista of natural splendour, convoluting mountain masses merge in a way that defy logical spatial relationships. They frame the garden scenery in the foreground, in which we see pavilions and multi-storeyed buildings emerging from luxuriant trees and slender bamboo clusters. There is a lucid pictorial order that is a firm statement of the artist's technical assurance. Moreover, the beautiful gardens depicted in the painting also bring before our eyes vividly the splendour of this prosperous city. Yuan Jiang used the ‘axe-cut' textural strokes to give vigour and animation to his mountain ranges which merge in the most novel and imaginative way. The buildings present an almost inexhaustible variety in format and amazing technical precision in construction. In addition, the artist enriched the painting with all kinds of human activities like listening to the zither in a water pavilion, gazing at the distant scenery on a balcony, or reading by the window. There are two large buildings in which many children, women and elderly people are seen. It seems that the artist was finding parallels between the luxuriant growth in the natural world and the flourishing of families in the human one, expressing an auspicious wish of the people. Paintings as this one were intended for decoration of the large mansions of the rich salt merchants. To those connoisseurs well accustomed to the literati tradition, they may be prejudiced to consider them as mere 'craftsmanship'. Yet even they cannot deny that this kind of painting has its place in the history of Chinese painting. As for Yuan Jiang and his son, they rose to prominence in Yangzhou at a time when the survival of this style of painting was threatened by the dominance of literati painting. They carried on this venerable tradition and extended it to new heights by their magnificent creations that are also expressions of their individuality. Their achievements have a historical significance that should be duly acknowledged. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 19