李方膺是淸朝畵家“揚州八怪”之一, 被罷官之後居於南京借園, 常往來揚州賣畵, 他是一個旣不脫離時代又有創新意識的畵家, 主張跳出古人的藩籬自立門戶.李方膺十分擅長畵人物, 山水, 松, 蘭, 竹, 梅等, 但尤精於畵梅. 李方膺喜愛梅花, 幷通過傳統的繪畵題材, 卽“四君子”之一的梅, 來展示自己的所思所感以及他的人生經歷. 李方膺是極其喜愛梅花的, 甚至達到了“所見無非梅”的程度. 他有一枚印章, 上面刻有“平生知己”, 所言卽是梅花. 李方膺主張“師自然”和“師前賢”, 從他的現存作品來看, 有一部分畵作就是學習古人畵法的, 如元朝畵家王冕, 就是李方膺喜愛的畵家之一也是他效倣的主要對象. 王冕師法北宋仲仁和尙和揚補之, 他一改先前畵梅風格, 構圖千叢萬簇, 千花萬蕊, 開密體寫梅之先河. 但李方膺的梅花圖與王冕的梅花圖所不同的是, 李方膺的梅花幷非枝繁葉茂的一整株, 而是“兩三枝”, 李方膺本人也曾賦詩道“賞心只有兩三枝”, 可見這“兩三枝”梅花無論是在造型, 構圖, 還是風格特點上都是十分符合他的美學觀念的. 那麼, 這種“兩三枝”的繪畵風格體現著李方膺怎樣的創作理念, 又體現了怎樣的藝術內涵和構圖智慧? 本文將以李方膺有記年的墨梅圖爲例, 來具體闡述“兩三枝”所體現的藝術內涵.

Li Fangying was a Chinese painter in Qing Dynasty, he was one of the “Eight Eccentric Artists in Yangzhou”. He was living in Nanjing after being dismissed from office and often went between Yangzhou and Nanjing for selling paintings. He is the artist who did not deviate from the times as well as full of innovation, also he advocated apart from the barriers of the ancients. Li was very good at characters drawn, landscapes, pines, orchids, bamboos, especially he was adept at plum blossoms as loving it. Fangying showed his thoughts and life experiences by painting plum blossoms which representing the spirit of one of “the four gentlemen”, it was the traditional painting theme. Li Fangying liked plum blossoms very much, even “seeing nothing but plum blossoms”. He had a seal lettering “confidant in life” which namely plum blossoms. Li advocated “study nature” and “study predecessors”, part of his paintings was illuminated by previous painters such as Wang Mian in Yuan Dynasty who was one of Li’s favorite painters and idols. Wang learnt Monk Zhongren and Yang Buzhi who were living in Northern Song Dynasty, he changed the previous painting style of plum blossom and painted them with clusters, which developed the dense painting for plum blossoms. However, the difference of plum blossoms paintings between Li’s and Wang’s was that Li’s painting was not a whole plum blossoms but “two or three branches”, so Li also wrote poems for his painting by “only two or three branches touching heart”. It could be concluded that whether the shape, color, or style in the “two or three branches” were in line with his aesthetic orientation. On basis of the painting style of “two or three branches”, what was the Li’s creative ideas could be revealed? And what were the artistic connotation and compositional wisdom for painting could be revealed? In this article, the artistic connotation of “two or three branches” painting would be described through introducing Li’s ink plum painting.