Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ba Weizu
Qianlong-era seal carver of She county, one of the Four Masters of She, who also wrote clerical script, painted and made antique-style ink
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 Yuji · Hao Jintang · Hao Juantang
Ba Weizu, courtesy name Yuji, art names Jintang and Juantang, came from Yuliang in She county, Anhui, and held the rank of expectant secretary. A collector of ancient bronzes and inscriptions, he carved seals on Qin and Han models, copying Han seals almost indistinguishably, and is counted with Cheng Sui, Hu Tang and Wang Zhaolong among the Four Masters of She; his seals are collected in Sixiangtang moyin, and he also wrote clerical script and painted landscapes, birds and flowers. The Palace Museum holds his set of ten Stone Drum inks, each cast in the drum shape with the seal-script text on one face and a regular-script reading on the other, signed as reduced copies made by Ba Weizu of She in 1784. He died in Yangzhou in 1793.
Life and times
Dates 1744 CE–1793 CE