Ma Yuan (馬遠) was a Chinese painter. Born during the Southern Song dynasty in Qiantang (modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang province), Ma Yuan (also called Qinshan) is one of the best-known exponents of traditional Chinese painting. Ma belonged to a family of court painters that spanned five generations, beginning with his great-grandfather, Ma Fen, and ending with his son, Ma Lin, all of whom served the Song emperors as court painters.
Background
The original family seat was in Hezhong (near modern Yongji, in the province of Shanxi), but the occupation of north China by the Jurchens forced the family to flee to the south, along with the Song government. The founding of the Jin dynasty in 1115 by the Jurchens in the north resulted in the establishment of the Southern Song in the south. Consequently, Ma Yuan spent his life in the culturally sophisticated environment of Hangzhou, which had an undeniable impact upon his art. Beyond these few facts, however, little is known about Ma Yuan's quotidian existence.
Despite the paucity of information about his life, it is clear that Yuan found favour at court, especially under Emperor Ningzong, who wrote poems for some of his paintings, and whose empress, Yang Meizi, is known to have inscribed a number of his works.
Career
Yuan had the odd cognomen 'One-corner Ma' because he was given to placing his main figures in one corner of a painting, often leaving the opposite corner empty, and depicting secondary objects in other parts of the painting with fainter ink. These techniques convey a remarkable sense of asymmetric perspective and depth, giving rise to an influential trend in Chinese painting.
Another distinguishing feature of Yuan's painting is its precision. It was said tbat his work had 'exact severity'. Moreover, Yuan employed the so-called axe-hewn brushstroke, which was made by slanting the tip of the brush, and which he used to depict the facets of rocks in his compositions. All of these techniques together constituted the spare style for which Yuan is celebrated.
Yuan was not immune to painting flowers and figures, but it was in landscapes that he excelled. He produced several large screens depicting landscapes, but none have survived. Yuan also painted tall hanging scrolls showing steep mountains with plunging waterfalls, burbling streams and soaring pine trees. Ma Yuan's mostly monochromatic landscapes reflect a philosophical approach CO nature characterized by identification with an idealized universe.
Two of Yuan's most famous works are 'Bare Willows and Distant Mountains' and 'Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring'. The former is painted on a fan mounted as an album leaf. (Round fans, often painted on one side, with a verse on the other, were much favoured by Southern Song Academy painters.) Although the scene consists of numerous elements, they are mostly vague and amorphous, save for the two starkly sketched willow trees and a quaint bridge over a body of 'water to their left. The other painting displays unabashed pleasure in nature. In the bottom left ('one corner'), a scholar pauses to enjoy the flight and song of a pair orioles. He is followed by his servant boy, who is carrying the scholar's lute and is so tiny as to be barely noticed.There is only the slightest suggestion of mountains on the left side of the painting, and the entire right side of the composition is virtually empty, save for a couplet describing the scene.