Ye Xiaoyan
Zurückhaltende Figurenszenen im Ma-Yuan-Stil
Ye Xiaoyan war ein Maler der Song-Dynastie, ursprünglich aus Qiantang (dem heutigen Hangzhou), der im frühen 13. Jahrhundert während der Baoyou-Periode der Südlichen Song-Dynastie (1253–1258) aktiv war. Er spezialisierte sich auf das Kopieren von Werken und die Erstellung kleiner Figurenszenen im Stil von Ma Yuan. Sein Stil ähnelte dem von Ma Yuan, war jedoch etwas zurückhaltender, und er verwendete oft Nassmaltechniken, um Felsen und Berge leicht zu kolorieren. Very few of his works have survived, and there is little recorded about his life. A friend, Gu Feng, even wrote a poem for him saying, 'The brushwork is wonderfully divine, capturing faces truly,' suggesting he was a modest folk painter. Ye Xiaoyan’s representative work, the album "Ten Views of West Lake," is now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The album is painted on silk with colors, each leaf measuring 23.9 cm in height and 20.2 cm in width. It combines poetry and painting to depict the ten scenic spots of West Lake. The mountains and rocks are painted using the 'da fu pi' axe-cut method, focusing on shading, with simple but elegant brushwork. This album is clearly documented in the "Shiqu Baoji Xu Bian".