Zhou Wenju

CHINA, Jiangsu, Zhenjiang; Southern Tang Kingdom

Zhou Wenju was a painter who served as an attendant scholar in the Hanlin Academy during the rule of Emperor Houzhu (reigned 961–975) from Jurong, Zhenjiang.
He specialized in the depiction of imperial life including clothing, carriages, and figures, especially ladies. As commented in Evaluation of Painters of the Past and Present, “Although light in facial makeup, Zhou’s paintings of ladies were rather elaborately decorated with adornments such as gold and jade jewelry.” His meticulous painting style resembled that of Zhou Fang, an artist of the Tang dynasty (618–907), skillfully using twisting and vibrant brushstrokes to depict intricate cloth folds. Also proficient in painting Buddhist figures, Zhou once painted an image that portrayed Matitreya Bodhisattva as an East Asian female instead of the usual Indian male representation. Another excerpt from Evaluation of Painters of the Past and Present describes a scene in which Zhou is witnessed painting a portrait of a monk scripting calligraphy. It is said that as the crowd observed in silent awe, the only sounds that could be heard were exclamations of astonishment.
Xuanhe Catalog of Paintings records 76 of Zhou’s paintings. His scroll painting of Playing Chess by the Double Screens is kept at Palace Museum in Beijing. Four remnant sections of the Song dynasty (960–1279) copy of his In the Palace are kept separately at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, USA, the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, USA, and Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Zhou’s Buddhist themed paintings include Manjusri Bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, and Vairocana Buddha. His works were also documented in Evaluation of Famous Painters of the Song Dynasty and History of Painting.