Wu Daozi

CHINA, Henan, Yuzhou; Tang dynasty

Wu Daozi was a painter from Yangzhai (present day Yuzhou). Although he lost both his parents when he was young and had a difficult childhood, Wu was a diligent student. An extremely skilled painter, he was highly respected by Emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712–756) of the Tang dynasty, who appointed him as an imperial court painter and gave him the name Daoxuan. Learning from Zhang Sengyao and Zhang Xiao, he specialized in painting Buddhist and Daoist figures, animals, plants, and pavilions. After his death, he was revered as the Sage of Painting.
Wu painted over 300 murals in Buddhist and Daoist temples throughout Xi’an and Luoyang. These murals displayed his immense skill and imagination. His illustrations of the hells were perhaps the most highly regarded. A mural in Jingyun Temple in Henan, in particular, depicted the hells in such a way that it was said to visibly frighten people and dissuade them from committing any unwholesome deeds. His earlier paintings utilized slender, compact brushstrokes, but later, his painting style became more unrestrained, with bold, vigorous strokes. Wu’s portrayals of the folds in clothing were so vivid that it looked as though the garments were flying in the wind, an effect that became known as “Wu Daozi style.”
All of the famed murals that Wu painted no longer exist, but records and copies of his artwork remain, including Emperor Xuanzong Accepting His Sacred Duty and Zhong Kui with Ten Fingers, recorded in Famous Paintings in History, and Mahamayuri and Heavenly King with Pagoda are recorded in Xuanhe Catalog of Paintings. A copy of the Birth of Prince Siddhartha is kept at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art in Japan. The Ratnakuta Pingala Buddha, attributed to him, is kept in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.