Ma Yuan

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or Ma Yüan

born c. 1160/65, Qiantang, Zhejiang province

died 1225

Chinese landscape painter.

Born into a family of court painters, Ma Yuan began his career under the emperor Xiaozong, became daizhao (“painter-in-attendance”) under Emperor Guangzong, and received the highest honour, the Golden Belt, under Emperor Ningzong. Apart from these facts, little is known about Ma's life. He occasionally painted flowers and figure subjects, but it was in landscape painting that his genius lay. He executed a number of large landscape screens, all of which are now lost. He also painted tall hanging scrolls depicting steep mountains with streams, waterfalls, and vigorously yet elegantly rendered pine trees. In many of his works, the mountains are pushed to one side, creating a “one corner” composition; between the distant mountains and the foreground rocks, where a scholar may be sitting, lies an expanse of empty space with a suggestion of mist or water. Ma's style was popular with late Song painters, and it is often difficult to distinguish his works from those of his followers. The romantic landscape style of Ma and his contemporary Xia Gui inspired a school of painting that came to be known as the Ma-Xia school, characterized by asymmetrical compositions with simplified ink tones and angular brushstrokes.

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Tibet, Plateau of: southern Plateau of Tibet

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Ma Yuan - Chinese general who helped establish the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 25).

Ma Yuan - influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the Ma-Xia school of painting. Ma occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for later painters. He was a master of "one-corner" painting, in which visual interest is focused in a corner of the work. His style ...

Ma-Xia school - group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, two great painters of the Southern Song academy, of which they were members in the last quarter of the 12th century AD and the beginning of the 13th century. The aim of their landscapes was to create a feeling of limitless space, a vast atmospheric void out of which a few elements, such as mountain ...

Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty - Chinese painters who worked during the Yuan period (1206-1368) and were revered during the Ming dynasty and later periods as major exponents of the tradition of "literati painting" (wenrenhua), which was concerned more with individual expression and learning than with outward representation and immediate visual appeal.

Xia Gui - one of China's greatest masters of landscape painting, cofounder with Ma Yuan of the Ma-Xia school. The album leaf and the hand scroll with a continuous panorama were his predominant forms. His works are typically in ink monochrome, occasionally with a few touches of colour. His style is characterized by short, sharp, angular strokes suggesting rapid execution.

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