Wu Daozi
The legendary mural painter of the Tang dynasty.
Wu Daozi painted Buddhist and Daoist murals in Chang'an. No securely attributed work survives, but legend says he walked into his own painting and vanished.
Wu Daozi was born around 680 in Yangdi in present-day Henan province and died some time after the 750s. He came from a poor family and was orphaned early. He is said to have studied calligraphy first before turning to painting. His talent was noticed, and Emperor Xuanzong summoned him to the court in the capital Chang'an, present-day Xi'an.
Wu Daozi is best known for murals in Buddhist and Daoist temples. According to the sources he painted hundreds of walls in Chang'an and Luoyang with celestial beings, hells and gods. His images of hell are said to have been so terrifying that butchers and fishermen changed trade after seeing them. None of this survives. The temples were destroyed, notably during the persecution of Buddhism in the 840s.
His style is described as powerful and swift. The lines vary in thickness, as if the brush swells and narrows, and the garments seem to flutter in the wind. The phrase “Wu's sashes flutter in the wind” became a byword. In this he differs from Gu Kaizhi's even, thin lines. Some works are attributed to him through later copies and stone engravings, but none can be linked to him with certainty.
The legends about him are many. One says that he painted an entire landscape along the Jialing River in a single day. Another tells how he painted a landscape on a palace wall, clapped his hands, walked into a cave in the picture and disappeared. These are legends, but they show how highly he was esteemed.
Wu Daozi was called “the sage of painting” and became the model for figure painting and religious art in China for many centuries. His use of a lively, expressive line also influenced art in Japan and Korea.