Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ye Cheng
Jiajing-era landscape painter of Suzhou descent settled in Beijing, who followed Dai Jin and painted the Yandang Mountains scroll
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 Yuanjing · Hao Changshan
Ye Cheng, courtesy name Yuanjing, art name Changshan, came of a Wu county family that had settled in the capital and registered there. The Ming Hualu says his landscapes in every manner followed Dai Jin so closely that they could hardly be told apart, though his surviving work is more finely detailed than Dai's and closer to the Suzhou painter Lu Zhi. Very little of his work survives; the Palace Museum's Yandang Mountains handscroll, in colour on damask silk and inscribed as painted by Ye Cheng of Yanshan in 1526, labels each scenic spot along the way in small script, and the early Qing collector Liang Qingbiao rated it highly.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Jiajing reign (painted Yandang Mountains in 1526)