Zhang Sengyou

Date of birth and death unknown. Court painter of the Liang Dynasty (502-557) of the Southern Dynasties in China. He is considered one of the three great painters of the Southern Dynasties, along with Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei. He was from Wu (Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). Emperor Wu of Liang (Xiao Yan) encouraged Buddhism, built Buddhist temples, and decorated the walls of many pagodas and temples with murals of portraits, people, stories, dragons, beasts, birds, and more, in addition to Buddhist paintings. These murals were painted by Zhang Sengyao. His dragons in particular are so lifelike that there is a legend that they fly away when you open your eyes to them. He was highly trusted by Emperor Wu, and was appointed as Attendant of Wuling Kingdom during the Tianjian era (502-519), and later Right General and Governor of Wuxing. When he produced the murals for Ichijoji Temple in the capital Jiankang (Nanjing), the decorative floral patterns were painted in vermilion and blue-green, and when viewed from afar, they looked dim and uneven, but when viewed in full view, they were flat (Jiankang Annals), suggesting that he used the shading technique introduced from the West. He is also said to have adopted the wrinkle technique of the Mokkotsu style into landscape painting, which is thought to have influenced the formation of Tang dynasty painting.

[Shinya Hoshiyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年不詳。中国、南朝(りくちょう)の梁(りょう)（502～557）の宮廷画家。南朝の三大画家として顧愷之(こがいし)、陸探微(りくたんび)と並び称される。呉（江蘇(こうそ)省蘇州(そしゅう)）の人。梁の武帝（蕭衍(しょうえん)）は仏教を奨励し、仏寺を建て、多くの塔廟(とうびょう)の壁を仏画のほか、肖像、人物、故事、竜、禽獣(きんじゅう)、鳥などの壁画で装飾したが、その壁画を描いたのが張僧繇である。とくに彼の竜は真に迫り、目を点じたら飛び去ったという伝説を残している。武帝の信任厚く、官は天監年中（502～519）に武陵王国侍郎、のち右将軍、呉興太守などにも任ぜられた。首都建康（南京(ナンキン)）の一乗寺の壁画制作にあたり、装飾の花文の彩色に「朱および青緑もて成す所、遠くより望めば眼暈(めくま)して凹凸のごとく、就(つ)いて見ればすなはち平」（『建康実録』）とあり、西方伝来の陰影法を用いたことをうかがわせている。また、山水画に没骨(もっこつ)的な皴法(しゅんぽう)を取り入れたといわれ、唐代絵画の形成に影響を与えたと思われる。

［星山晋也］

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