Copy, yet Original

Traditionally, Chinese painters favored, and were praised for, linking between contemporary work and classic paradigms. A typical example of this pursuit of antiquity is fang (artistic imitation) paintings omnipresent in the art of the Ming-Qing period. There is more to making a copy than imitating an original; there is more to utilizing a commonly known style than paying tribute to the master. Through an investigation of fang paintings made in the style of the scholar-painter Ni Zan (1306–1372) during the 15th–17th centuries, this study unravels how the same art style signals "political disagreement" in one fang painting but refers to the painter's glorious family history in another or even works as a marketing strategy. This research probes the social meaning of style, the changing perceptions of the same model in different historical contexts, and the role of fang paintings in the development of literati art. I suggest that fang paintings can function as "sub-originals" and can become be as influential as the originals after which they were modeled.