동기창(董其昌, 1555-1636)의 대필화가 연구

Abstract

Dong Qichang is perhaps the most influential and eminent painter, calligrapher, and art theorist in late Ming China. He created the theory of the Southern and Northern schools of painting, establishing sets of canonical models for literati painters in the Southern school and harshly criticizing the practice of professional and court painters in the Northern school. He dismissed the Northern school as heterodox. The art-historical formulations through which he codified his understanding of the past laid the foundation for the creation of the myth of literati painters. Dong has been considered to be a truly high-minded artist embodying the amateur ideal in Chinese painting who was never involved in the commercial transactions of paintings. Contrary to our understanding of Dong Qichang, he was an active artist-entrepreneur producing and selling a large number of paintings for commercial purposes. He even employed ghostpainters to meet the high demand for his paintings. Qi Gong’s 1962 seminal essay on Dong’s ghostpainters laid the groundwork for understanding how they worked for him. Thanks to Qi’s research, Zhao Zuo (ca. 1570-after 1633), Monk Kexue (fl. early 17th century), Shen Shichong (fl. ca. 1607-40), Wu Zhen (fl. early 17th century), Wu Yi (fl. early 17th century), Ye Younian (1590-1669), and Zhao Jiong (fl. early 17th century) came to be identified as Dong’s ghostpainters. Nonetheless, no close examination has been made of what paintings by or attributed to Dong were, in fact, created by them. This study aims to investigate the paintings that they ghostpainted for Dong. In all likelihood, Green Mountains, White Clouds, and Red Trees by Dong in the Guangdong Provincial Museum and Boneless Landscape after Yang Sheng, dated 1615, in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, were painted by Zhao Zuo. “Boneless Landscape after Zhang Sengyou,” one leaf from the Album of Landscapes in the Styles of Old Masters in the Shanghai Museum and Concealing Clouds and Scattering Rain in the Low Chuck Tiew Collection in Hong Kong by Dong are thought to have been painted by Shen Shichong. Wu Zhen joined them in ghostpainting Autumn Colors in Lakes and Mountains in the Wuxi Museum for Dong. Although Monk Kexue, Wu Yi, Ye Younian, and Zhao Jiong acted as ghostpainters for Dong, there is no visual evidence proving how they worked for him. It must be noted that Chen Jiru (1558-1639), in a letter to Shen Shichong, sent the latter a piece of white paper together with a brush fee of three-tenths of a tael of silver on behalf of Dong Qichang. This episode serves to highlight how Dong used his ghostpainters in the business of painting. He is said to have even used his concubines to sell his paintings. Dong was a commercially successful painter with high business acumen.