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Scroll Painting
Gu Kaizhi paid great attention to details that revealed the characteristics
of the figures he drew. Once he was asked to paint the portrait of a man called
Pei Kai, who had three long fine hairs on his face that had been ignored by
other painters. Gu laid great emphasis on the three hairs, and Pei was very
satisfied. Another time, he portrayed the man Xie Kun standing in the midst of
mountains and rocks. When asked about the reason, he explained that Xie loved to
travel to see beautiful mountains and rivers. This story demonstrates that Gu
was skillful at drawing surroundings that enhanced the characteristics of the
painted figures.
Nushi Zhen Painting by Gu
Kaizhi
Gu also made great advances in summarizing painting theories. His theoretical
works included Painting Thesis and Notes on Painting the Yuntai
Mountain. He paid considerable attention to the vivid expressions of the
figures to show their spirit. His Graphic Theory later became a basic
theory for traditional Chinese painting. According to historical records, Gu
created more than 70 paintings based on historical stories, Buddhas, human
figures, birds, animals, mountains and rivers. His three existing scroll
paintings are Nushi Zhen Painting, Luoshen
Appraisal Painting and Lienu Renzhi Painting; these are the
earliest examples of scroll paintings.
The theme of the Luoshen Appraisal Painting was drawn fromthe article,
Luoshen Appraisal, written by Cao Zhi, son of the Wei Emperor Cao Cao. It
depicts the meeting of Cao Zhi and Goddess Luoshen at the Luoshui River. The
picture vividly portrays the moods when they first met each other and when they
were finally forced to separate. Gu emphasized the expressions of the figures;
the stones, mountains and trees in the picture are for ornamental purposes. Gu's
paintings are similar in style to the Dunhuang
murals, and had a big influence on later traditional Chinese
paintings.
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