KU K'AI-CHIH

born AD 344, , Wu-hsi, Kiangsu Province, China died AD 406 Admonitions of the Court Instructress, detail of a hand scroll attributed to Ku Pinyin Gu Kaizhi one of the earliest many-faceted artists in China, who probably set new standards for figure painting. Ku K'ai-chih was a courtier who protected himself from the hazards of public life in a turbulent age by playing the part of a harmless eccentric; but he is most famous as a painter of portraits and figure subjects and as a poet. Ku K'ai-chih's art is known today from both written records and paintings that are associated with him. He is recorded as having been among the first to paint a representation of Vimalakirti, the Buddhist saint who became popular in China. Ku is also represented by two versions of a painting recorded as having been painted by him, the hand scroll known as the Nymph of the Lo River, illustrating a Taoist poem. His essay Hua Yn-t'ai Shan Chi (On Painting the Cloud Terrace Mountain), is also Taoist in content. The famous hand scroll entitled The Admonitions of the Court Instructress (in the British Museum) bears a signature of Ku K'ai-chih, though it is not originally recorded as having been painted by him. Nonetheless, it accurately maintains a pre-T'ang dynasty (618906) style. The scroll illustrates, through a series of individual scenes separated by the text of a didactic Confucian poem, proper behaviour for court ladies. The line is carefully controlled, and the composition and highly selected details both illustrate and expand effectively upon the nature of the text.