Chinese painting of a monk?

February 15, 2010 12:10 PM

Classical Chinese Painting filter? This is a long shot. Once I saw a painting of a Chinese monk/priest where his robe was rendered in one brisk stroke of brush-work. Anyone knows who the painter was and what the painting was called? Thanks
posted by Pantalaimon to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Do you have any clue where you saw this painting? Was it in a book? A movie? In person in a museum? In a museum in China? How long ago, approximately, did you see it? Do you remember the color of the paint and the color of the background? What was the orientation of the painting - was it tall and thin or short and wide? Were there any other elements to the painting apart from the monk? Do you know what size the original painting might be? Was there any accompanying poetry on or paired with the painting? Are you totally sure that it was Chinese?

Any detail you can dredge up from your memory will be helpful in narrowing things down.
posted by Mizu at 12:45 PM on February 15, 2010

My hunch is that you're thinking of a zen brush-painting of Bodidharma (Daruma). Which seems to be a genre of painting unto itself: I was able to find quite a few likely candidates googling for "zen brush painting of Bodidharma Daruma"
posted by adamrice at 1:44 PM on February 15, 2010

Yeah, this is vague to the point of being impossible to assist you with. Creating the "gestalt" of a complex shape using only one or a few carefully trained brush strokes is the basis of certain types of Chinese painting (often derived from Calligraphy and [overly] laden with esoteric symbolism).
posted by flippant at 3:20 PM on February 15, 2010

Response by poster: Mizu: Details: I saw it during a lecture on Chinese history at college in 2000, and the professor was discussing classical Chinese painting. So I am absolutely sure it's Chinese. As far as I recall, the painting featured only the monk. The color of background is white, and the robe was black ink. The face of monk is tilted and were painted with color. The dimension of the painting is short and wide. The brush-work that made the robe looked very violent and rough, as if the artist simply casually flicked his wrist as an afterthought.

adamrice: thanks for the suggestion, I googled the phrase but none of the results matched.

flippant: can you tell me what's the name of that particular style/school of Chinese painting? It's okay if it's in Chinese.
posted by Pantalaimon at 7:27 PM on February 15, 2010

Something like... this?
posted by hellopanda at 7:44 PM on February 15, 2010