Ma Yuan (painter)

Mǎ Yuǎn ( Chinese  馬 遠  /  马 远 ; * 1160 ; † 1225 ) was an important painter of the Chinese Song dynasty .

Ma Yuan was born in Qiantang (錢塘; today Hangzhou , Zhejiang Province) and belonged to a family of painters, because his father (Ma Shirong 马世荣), grandfather (Ma Xingzu 马兴祖) and great-grandfather (Ma Ben 马 贲) were members of the academy at the Imperial Court of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, his son Ma Lin (馬 麟; Pinyin: Mǎ Lín) was the last significant painter in the Ma family.

Ma Yuan came to the court in 1189 under Emperor Guangzong (光宗) and enjoyed some respect there, especially under Emperor Ningzong (宁宗), who wrote some poems that were inspired by Ma Yuan's pictures. However, nothing is known about his later life.

The most famous school of Chinese landscape painters outside of China is the Ma Xia School (馬夏), which is named after its founders Ma Yuan and Xia Gui (夏 圭).

Ma Yuan used the " Eineck-Composition " (邊角 之 景 biānjiǎo zhī jǐng) to dissolve tension into meditative calm through the extreme reduction of the image content. Hence his nickname Eineck-Ma (馬 一角 Mǎ Yījiǎo).

Picture gallery

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  Farmers on their way home from work (detail)
  《踏歌 圖》
  Tàgē Tú

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  Spring
  walk 山徑 春 行 圖
  Shānjìng Chūnxíng Tú

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  Scholar with servant on a terrace (1200–1230)

literature

• Frank Northen Magill (Ed.), Alison Aves (Ed.): Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 2 . Routledge, 1998, ISBN 1579580416 , pp. 612–614 ( excerpt (Google) )

Web links

Commons : Ma Yüan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The structure with partial focus of Chinese landscape painting - Using the landscape paintings by Ma Yuan and Xia Gui as an example (China Radio International)
• On a mountain path in spring (East Asia Institute Ludwigshafen)