WU TAO-HSAN

flourished c. 700, 760 also called Wu Tao-tzu, Pinyin Wu Daoxuan, or Wu Daozi painter of the Chinese T'ang dynasty (618907) who came to be so praised by later critics that his original contributions are almost buried in myth. He is recorded as having painted a wide variety of subjects, perhaps painting large wall compositions of an essentially Buddhist character more than anything else. He is especially noted for his imagination and the expressive vigour of his brushwhich is cited even by T'ang critics who lavished a divine (shen) rating upon him. There are no known extant works that give anything other than the most hazy impression of his skill and accomplishment. Probably, however, his brush created vividly expressive lines of alternately thick and thin tensionsseen then and remembered still as in distinct contrast to the more preciously coloured and evenly controlled delineations of the contemporary courtly style.