A Research on Li Tang's Transformations in Landscape Painting Conception

   in late Northern Song and early Southern Song Dynasty​​

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Author : Kim, Yeon-joo​​​​​​​

Page : 251-285

Abstract   

  Li Tang(李唐) was a court painter who inherited and innovated the pictorial contexts of Huizong’s Xuanhe Era court(宣和畵院) in the Northern Song dynasty and Gaozong’s Shaoxing Era court(紹興畵院) in the Southern dynasty, which could have been cut off. He was excellent at handling with various characters such as flowers, birds, animals, and people, and especially ‘the changes’ in his unique composition and pen and ink methods of his landscape paintings, which have essential and complex meanings.

  In the Northern Song dynasty, his Painting conceptions were majestic and strong, and the landscaping of the entire composition was out-standing. On the other hand, his paintings of the Southern Song dynasty contained the scenery of Gangnam, but had changed to landscape paintings with strong and refined brushstrokes. Lin'an(臨安) was the temporary capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and for him Lin'an was a temporary space that lost its eternity and a place of unsettling times. 

  As a court painter, the epic lyricism contained in Li Tang's painting was an expression of will beyond the subjective mood, and it was also the sorrow of life for the members of society who experienced a wider range of interests than literati. Li Tang's Painting Conception in the Song dynasty was a visualized space by fusing the overall environment of nature, politics, and culture surrounding him and the unique sentiment of the times. 

<Key Words>

Li Tang, court painter, transformation in landscape painting, Huizong’s Xuanhe(宣和) court, Gaozong’s Shaoxing(紹興) court, four great painters in Southern Song Dynasty​