Ye Xiaoyan
Scènes figuratives style Ma Yuan
Ye Xiaoyan était un peintre de la dynastie Song, originaire de Qiantang (aujourd'hui Hangzhou), actif au début du XIIIe siècle durant la période Baoyou des Song du Sud (1253-1258). Il se spécialisait dans la copie d'œuvres et la création de petites scènes figuratives dans le style de Ma Yuan. Son style ressemblait à celui de Ma Yuan, mais était quelque peu plus retenu, et il utilisait souvent des techniques de pinceau humide pour colorer légèrement les rochers et les montagnes. 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".