Li Tang: Stones Seemed Hard in His Paintings

Li Tang (1066-1150) (李唐) : Courtesy name Xi Gu (晞古), native of Mengxian, Henan Province; painter in the Imperial Academy of Painting through the reigns of Emperors Huizong, Qinzong and Gaozong of the Song Dynasty. He specialized in figure and landscape painting, and created a forceful and fast brushstroke called the axe-hewn texture ("大斧劈"皴) wrinkle to model the hard rocky mass of the mountains of northern China. He was credited with founding, together with Fan Kuan of an earlier period, the northern school of landscape painting. In this painting “Wind-swept Pines in the Mountain Range” (万壑松风) the viewer is greeted by massive mountain, behind which stand grotesque, stalagmite-like distant peaks that thrust into the sky; at the foot of the mountain the scenery becomes more naturalistic, with waterfalls, mountain streams, foothills, pines and rocky cliffs forming and Eden. The mountain body, modeled with the axe-hewn texture wrinkles, looks substantial, solid and heavily textured. The clouds and mists defined by leaving the spaces blank add spaciousness and charm to the harsh, virile composition.

source: The Art Book of Chinese Painting, published by Long River Press