Zhang Sengyou

Chinese

Pionier der 3D-Schattierung

Zhang Sengyou(张僧繇) was from Wuzhong, Wu County (now Suzhou, Jiangsu). During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, he was a minister of the Liang dynasty and a famous painter, regarded as one of the 'Four Great Masters of Painting.' As a young boy, he studied painting at Yunding Mountain. During the Tianjian period of the Liang dynasty, he served as the attendant minister to Prince Wuling and the director of painting affairs at the Secretariat. He later held positions such as Right Army General and Prefect of Wuxing. He was known for his hard work and talent, excelling in life-like painting. He was particularly skilled in painting Buddhist images, dragons, and eagles, often creating scrolls and murals. The idiom 'dotting the eyes on the dragon' comes from a legend about him. It is said that at Yicheng Temple in Jinling, he used a technique emphasizing light and shade called 'tuiyun' to paint '凸凹 flowers,' giving them a three-dimensional effect. This shows he had learned foreign painting techniques, and his strokes, though simple, already captured the essence—a style resembling sketching, called 'shuti.' Today, a Tang dynasty reproduction by Liang Lingzan of Zhang’s 'Sketches of the Stars of the Five Planets and Twenty-Eight Mansions' survives, now in Japan, although the brushwork and records differ from Zhang’s original. He was also skilled in sculpture, earning the title 'Zhang Family Style.' Zhang Sengyou’s art had a huge influence on later generations. Alongside Gu Kaizhi, Lu Tanwei, and Wu Daozi, he is known as one of the 'Four Great Masters of Painting.' Tang dynasty painters Yan Liben and Wu Daozi studied his work from afar.

Artworks by this artist (19 total)