| This dissertation argues for the importance of Wang Hui (1632--1717) in the formation of early Qing painting and specifically in the creation of a landscape panorama that matched the political ambitions of the emperor Kangxi (r. 1662--1722). Wang Hui created a large number of landscape panoramas throughout his career: complex landscapes in the long handscroll format that encompassed a wide range of past styles and classical themes. At the center of Wang Hui's enterprise of landscape panoramas is his rediscovery of the Northern Song painter Yan Wengui (active 980--1010) and the classical landscape genre of "mountains and rivers without end." Wang Hui's ambitious panoramic landscape, Layered Rivers and Tiered Peaks, dating to about 1687, more than eighteen meters in length, was the result of his pursuit to reinvigorate the tradition of "mountains and rivers without end" paintings with his "Great Synthesis."; The potential political association of Wang Hui's landscape panoramas with images of the Great Unity (Da yitong) was appealing to the Qing imperial court. Wang Hui's landscape panoramas, made for high officials during the 1680s, led to his appointment as the master painter of the Nanxun tu, a set of twelve scrolls commemorating the emperor Kangxi's Southern Tour of 1689. The imperial commendation, "mountains and rivers, pure and splendid (shanshui qinghui)," in celebration of the completion of the Nanxun tu, epitomizes Wang Hui's artistic ambition and political success. |
