Ch:zhezhihua.
Lit. cut-branch flowers. A type of highly idealized Chinese flower painting
that focuses on a single spray of flowers or a blossoming tree branch, abstracting
it from any natural context. The depiction is composed for maximum clarity,
sacrificing absolute naturalism. Cut-branch flower paintings tend to be
small, in contrast to the large-scale floral compositions of groups of trees,
plants and flowers. The cut-branch composition is said to have originated
with the Five Dynasties painter Xu Xi (Jp:Jo Ki 徐煕, act. mid-10c), but is
best known in the work of the Song painters Zhao Chang (Jp: Chou Shou 趙昌,
act. early 11c) and Li Di (Jp: Ri Teki 李迪, act. late 12c), whose Red and
white Hibiscus,
Fuyou-zu 芙蓉図 (Ch: Furongtu; 1197, Tokyo National
Museum) is most famous. In Japan the type often was produced without the
elaborate coloring of the Chinese versions. *
Sumi
墨 ink
sesshika paintings of plum branches were particularly popular
in Japan.