22 THENATIONALGALLERYOFART 



Osaka castles. He died in 1593 at the age of 48. In later years he was 

 known by the name of Ko-Yeitoku or Ancient Yeitoku. The Kokka. 



Yeitoku was trained in Motonobu's school, and inherited the lofty tradi- 

 tions of Ashikaga painting. Hence a style that might easily have fallen 

 into vulgarity and parade preserved in his hands weight and grandeiu". 

 * * * The typical masterpieces of Yeitoku and his pupils were immense 

 screens, decorations on walls or sliding panels, painted in opaque pigments 

 of rich color on gold leaf. The effect was one of extraordinary magnificence. 

 Nothing could surpass the stately impressiveness of Yeitoku at his best. 

 He painted horses in their stalls or in the freedom of the solitary hills; 

 tigers menacing and irresistible; fabulous lions of strange but royal aspect; 

 birds of rich plumage on forest boughs; fawns flying from the retreat of tall 

 waving grasses, heroes and princesses of old Chinese legend, and superb 

 landscapes. Binyon. 



CHINESE PAINTERS. 



PIEN LUAN. T'ang Dynasty. 



Then Pien Luan, painter of birds and flowers, is perhaps worthy of a brief 

 note for his splendid "A Peacock," eulogized by Hu Yen of the Ming 

 dynasty some 500 years later. It appears that between 785 and 806 the 

 King of the Hsin-lo (in Korea) forwarded as tribute a dancing peacock, and 

 the Emperor was so pleased that he commissioned Pien Luan to paint two 

 pictures of it, a front and a back view. This he achieved to such purpose 

 that "the plumage of dazzling gold seemed to tinkle faintly" with the 

 movements of the bird. Herbert A . Giles. ^ 



LI LUNG-MIEN. Sung Dynasty. 



Li Kung-lin, popularly known as Li Lung-mien, Li of the Dragon Face 

 (Japanese, Ri-riu-min), has been described by one critic as "the first 

 among all the painters of the Sung dynasty, equal in brilliancy to the 

 masters of olden times." He belonged to a literary family, and in 1070 he 

 himself gained the highest degree and entered upon an official career. 

 After serving in several important posts he was compelled in iioo by 

 rheumatism to resign, and retired to the Lung-mien Hill, from which he 

 took his fancy name, and where he died in 1106. He was a man of many 

 talents. "He wrote in the style of the Chien-an period (A. D. 196-220); 

 his calligraphy was that of the Chin-Sung epoch (3d and 4th centimes); his 

 painting ranked with that of Ku K'ai-chih and Lu T'an-wei ; and as a widely 

 informed connoisseur in bells, incense biu-ners, and antiques generally, he 

 was quite without a rival in his day. 



" Dtuing the 10 years he was in office at the capital he never frequented 

 the mansions of the influential persons, but whenever he got a holiday, if 



> An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art. By Herbert A. Giles, M. A., 

 LI*. D., Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge. Shanghai. Messrs. Kelly & 

 Walsh, Ld., 1905. 



