Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Zhou Fang
Tang painter of plump, richly dressed court ladies and Buddhist images, who served as aide in Xuanzhou and painted the Zhangjing Temple figures for Dezong
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 Zi Jingxuan
Zhou Fang, courtesy name Jingxuan (another account gives Zhonglang), came from an official family of the capital district and ended his career as aide to the prefect of Xuanzhou. He began by studying Zhang Xuan, painting court women with full figures and rich dress, and also painted Buddhist images, originating the 'Water-Moon Guanyin' type; Zhu Jingxuan's Record of Famous Painters of the Tang (Tangchao minghua lu) placed him in the divine class. When Dezong summoned him to paint deities at the Zhangjing Temple, he let the crowds of onlookers point out faults and kept revising for more than a month until the comments stopped. The Northern Song Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings lists seventy-two of his works in the imperial collection, half of them of women. Ladies Wearing Flowers in the Liaoning Provincial Museum and Ladies with Fans in the Palace Museum, Beijing, bear his name, though the attribution of the former is disputed.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active under Emperors Daizong and Dezong