Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Shang Qi
Yuan landscape painter and official, son of Shang Ting, whose only signed surviving work is Spring Mountains
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 Defu · Hao Shouyan
Shang Qi, courtesy name Defu, art name Shouyan, came from Jiyin in Caozhou, now Heze in Shandong, and was the fifth son of the early Yuan statesman Shang Ting. He entered service in the imperial guard in the Dade era, was made an auxiliary academician of the Jixian Academy while Renzong was heir apparent, later became a Jixian expositor, and in 1324 was promoted director of the Palace Library before retiring home through illness. He painted landscapes after Li Cheng with touches of the Mi family's ink washes and, with Gao Kegong, represents northern scholar landscape of the early Yuan. Spring Mountains in the Palace Museum, signed Shang Qi Defu of Caonan, is his only surviving signed work.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active 1304–1324