Pine Lodge amid Tall Mountains

明代萬曆1604年  吳彬  深山逸樂題杜甫詩句圖    紙本墨色軸

Wu Bin was born in Fujian province and probably had his early training in the style practiced by local professional painters. Some time between 1591 and 1600 he moved to Nanjing, where his talent was noted by members of the imperial court. There he had access to ancient paintings in the imperial collection. Perhaps in part due to this exposure, Wu was a leader in a movement to revive the traditional styles of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Although he was accomplished in a range of styles and types of painting, he is now best known for monumental landscapes with exaggerated compositions and forms, characteristics of a painting tradition associated with the Northern Song dynasty (960–1126). This very large hanging scroll, no doubt created for one of the palatial-sized buildings common in Nanjing, is a creative reworking of the late Ming revival of the monumental landscape painting, with its emphasis is on vertical rock forms. In Wu Bin's version, the tall crag resembles an organism growing in defiance of the earthly law of gravity.