Tang Yin Paintings Characters Preliminary Research And Selective Identification

Tang Yin, one of the "Four Great Painters of Ming Dynasty", takes a pivotal position in the history of ancient Chinese Paintings. Because of his legendary life experience, Tang Yin’s calligraphy and paintings have always drawn great attention in appreciation and collection circles. In his numerous existing paintings, landscape painting, figure painting and flower-and-bird painting are all of great artistic values, and figure paintings are especially unique. This kind of paintings have a large number, and has attracted considerable attention.Tang Yin inherited the style of imperial-court decorative painting of South Song Dynasty as well as the style of Zhe School of Ming Dynasty (a painting school good both at landscape paintings and at figure paintings), and he was unique for figure paintings in Wu Painting School. Besides the traditional Chinese painting of beautiful women and historical story painting, of which the main body is purely the figures, there are figures that should not be ignored in Tang Yin’s many other paintings. It is reasonable that these figures’shape and techniques have similarity and relevance with each other during the same period, and taking them as a whole to study can provide a comprehensive understanding of his figures. After observing Tang Yin’s numerous paintings involving figures, it can be found that the styles and skills are various and the levels are mixed. There must be fake, and treatises and studies on it can be found sometimes. This paper will start with techniques of figure painting, hopes to establish a system and appreciative standards for Tang Yin’s figures, applies them to appreciating study on his paintings, and provide important reference to eliminate the false and retain the true.This paper first attempts to collect all of Tang Yin’s paintings about figures stored in museums home and abroad. It then screens twenty-six paintings which are authenticated original according to the previous appraisal and my research on these paintings’contents, calligraphy of inscriptions, preface and postscript, spreading process, quality of paper and silk, and the current status. In accordance with different themes and expression forms of figures, these paintings can be classified into "allusion of beautiful ladies", "hall, study and scholars", "the noble men in forests", and "landscape with dip of scenery". After the stage research and comparative research on figures of these four categories, their regular rules and features can be concluded. Particularly, this paper thoroughly analyzes figures of "allusion of beautiful ladies" and "hall, study and scholars", and obtains some standards that could be applied directly in the practice of identification.After that, this paper selects some representatives from numerous museum-collected Tang Yin’s paintings, and according to their expression forms roughly categorize them into "paintings of a single woman", "paintings of a single man", "paintings of stories of many people", "paintings of many people in hall and study", "paintings of many people in open space" and "paintings of many people in landscape". The regular rules and features of figures can be applied to compare, analyze and identify Tang Yin’s paintings, as well as combined with their spreading process, calligraphy of inscriptions, preface and postscript and other aspects.Through the research and identification of this paper, the counterfeits are as below:Beautiful Woman of Chang E, Beautiful Woman and Peony, Beautiful Woman Playing Xiao, Ban Jieyu and the Circular Fan, Chang E’s Fly to the Moon, Beautiful Woman and Apricot Flower, Beautiful Woman and Red Leaf with A Poem, Sleeping Beautiful Woman and Banana Leaf, Portrait of Dongfang Shuo, Albums of Landscape and Figures, Tao Gu Giving Lyrics, Tao Gu andRuo Lan, Drawing’Han Xizai’s Banquet’, Coping’Han Xizai’s Banquet’, Tao Qian Appreciating Chrysanthemum, Appreciating Chrysanthemum by East Fences, Listening to Bamboos at Pavilion Xu, The Noble Man in Pavilion Bamboo, Tea-tasting, fragments of The Noble Man, Man and Guqin, Boiling Chinese Medicine, Two Pine Trees and Waterfalls, Appreciating Waterfalls, Walking Alone in Autumn Forests, Fishing Alone by Pine Trees and the Creek, and etc.; moreover, leaving a question open to Shooting Poplar, Double Bamboos, Chinese Parasol’s Shadow and Dream. However, in the paintings that are believed fake or questionable can be authentic work, which will be further analyzed and researched on to supplement or modify the conclusion of this paper.