Chapter 15 Lu Tanwei

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were three most famous painters: Gu Kaizhi, Lu Tanwei (? - about 485), and Zhang Sengxuan.Xie He's "Ancient Paintings Record" listed Lu Tanwei as the first person above the top grade, above Gu Kaizhi.Of course, there will be people who fight against injustice. Tang Li Sizhen said "this statement is too much", and advocated that "Gu and Lu live together at the top of the top class".Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang Dynasty commented on the merits and demerits of the three most brilliantly. He said: "Husband Xiang is a man of character, Zhang Ya is better than Gu and Lu Ye. Zhang gets his flesh, Lu gets his bones, and Gu gets his spirit."

Lu Tanwei, the year of birth and death is unknown.Wu (now Suzhou, Jiangsu) people.He was a court painter during the Song and Ming Dynasties of the Southern Dynasties, and was also the earliest painter in China known as the "Painting Saint".It is said that he was the first person to combine calligraphy and painting, using the cursive brushwork of Zhang Zhi of the Eastern Han Dynasty in his paintings. Unfortunately, his paintings have not been handed down.But judging from his contemporaries' admiration for him, his painting should have reached the highest level at that time. Xie He proposed the "six methods" of painting. He believed that since ancient times, there were very few artists who could do all of them, but Lu Tanwei and Wei Xie did it.Lu Tanwei likes to paint ancient sages and sages. He inherited Gu Kaizhi, but has developed. "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" contains more than 70 paintings by Lu Tanwei, most of which are figures, such as "Song Xiaowu Portrait", "Song Ming Emperor Portrait", "Xiaowu Heroic Officials", "Yuzhang King Statue", "Yanlong Statue", "Xunchen Statue" ", "Shen Tanqing Drunk Statue", "Confucius Statue", "Ten Disciples Statue", "Zhong Qi Statue", "Jingling King Statue", "Ananda Vimo Statue" and so on.There are also some other contents, such as "Picture of Cicada and Bird", "Picture of White Horse", "Picture of Monkey", "Picture of Fighting Duck" and so on.