CHE SCHOOL

Pinyin Zhe, group of conservative, academic Chinese painters who worked primarily in the 15th century, during the Ming dynasty. These painters specialized in large and decorative paintings that perpetuated the styles and interests of, especially, the Southern Sung (11271279) academy of painting and represent a contrast to the work of scholar-painters of the contemporary Wu school. The name derives from the first character of the name of the province in which the school flourished (Chekiang) and in which the Southern Sung capital, Hang-chou, had been located. Artists of the Che school were no longer ensconced in an imperially sponsored academy of painting but were often given imperial support within the palace administration. Their paintings frequently are elaborations of the Sung-academy bird-and-flower painting or similarly enhanced landscapes based essentially on the Ma-Hsia style. Their compositions tend to substitute a fragmentary and additive quality for the former subtle unity, and there is an exaggerated attraction to vivid plays of ink and colour. The work of the 15th-century painter Tai Chin (q.v.), traditionally considered the school's founder, and of otherssuch as Wu Weiis often but a loose paraphrase of Sung academic ideals. The school continued into later times, culminating with the 17th-century painter Lan Ying, but was increasingly supplanted by artists and interests identified with literati painting (wen-jen-hua).