Lin Liang and the Hawk

One of the main focuses of visual art during the Ming dynasty was the bird-and-flower painting. These paintings typically displayed, as the name suggests, birds coupled with flowers or trees to “convey [the] benevolence, virtue, and majesty” of the Ming dynasty (Source:Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Cambodian born Lin Liang stood out as one of the most prominent bird-and-flower artists of the Ming Dynasty. Liang “specialized in bold, expressive, monochrome depictions of birds in the wild” (Source:Lin Liang: Two Hawks in a Thicket (1993.385) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Liang was specifically partial towards hawks; the embodiment of admirable characteristics during the Ming Dynasty — honor, courage, power, etc.

Lin Liang Two Hawks in a Thicket (15th Century)

Lin Liang’s painting Two Hawks in a Thicket demonstrates the veneration towards hawks during the Ming Dynasty. This work is unique in that the hawks are displayed in detail. Liang typically displayed the hawk as a lone silhouette against a dark sky, overlooking the world with a statuesque mystique. In the painting Two Hawks in a Thicket the hawks are — in contrast to Liang’s normal portrayal of the hawk — close, seemingly tangible. Instead of being distant phantoms, the hawks are given features and personalities — one maintaining the majestic dignity seen in Liang’s other hawk paintings, the other resting. Though the hawks appear to be unusually close, Liang keeps them at arms length by placing them in a thicket, creating the illusion of palpability. Though not perched high above the mortal world in the haunting phantom-esque style Liang is so famous for, the two in Two Hawks in a Thicket maintain the majesty, honor, and power hawks embodied.