Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Li Zhaodao
Tang landscape painter, son of Li Sixun, known as the Younger General Li for carrying on his father's blue-and-green manner with still finer detail
A desk holds an unrolled sheet bearing three bold black ink strokes, with a rack of many brushes above it, a stone ink slab and ink stick, a porcelain bowl, a red lacquer box, a dish of red seal paste and a paperweight; a small seated figure shows through a round window onto bamboo.
Also known as Xiaoli Jiangjun
Li Zhaodao was a member of the Tang imperial clan, son of the painter Li Sixun and a cousin of the chief minister Li Linfu; Zhang Yanyuan's Record of Famous Painters of All Ages (Lidai minghua ji) says he rose to be a secretary in the crown prince's household. He carried on his father's blue-and-green landscape manner with even finer brushwork, and Zhang wrote that he changed his father's style and surpassed it, crediting him also with the first fine paintings of the sea. People called his father the Elder General Li and him the Younger General Li. He also painted birds, animals, buildings and figures in a rich, detailed manner. The Emperor Minghuang's Journey to Shu and Travellers among Spring Mountains in the Taipei Palace Museum have long carried his name, though most scholars now regard them as later copies.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; High Tang painter