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Spring Morning in the Han Palace
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HANGONG Chunxiao Tu or Spring Morning in the Han Palace has long been cherished by Chinese art lovers as one the top 10 masterpieces in traditional Chinese painting.
The 30.6 x 574.1 centimeter, ink and color on silk handscroll was painted in the 16th century by Qiu Ying (1494-1552), a prominent painter in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Qiu was born into a peasant’s family in Taicang in today’s Jiangsu Province in east China and his family was later moved to Suzhou, a scenic city in the same province.
In his early youth, Qiu worked as a lacquerer who painted columns and beams of rich people’s houses. But later, he gained a reputation after his works were praised by Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), a renowned painter and calligrapher.
His talent was also appreciated by another professional painter Zhou Chen (1460-1535), who later became Qiu’s art teacher. Under Zhou’s tutorship, the young painter copied many masterpiece artworks of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) in order to learn the painting skills of that time.
Some of his copies, such as the famous Along the River During the Qingming Festival, were so convincing that even many art specialists could hardly discriminate them from the originals.
Qiu later became a versatile painter and developed a number of fabulous painting skills in ink wash, line drawing and fine brush painting. The subjects of his paintings range from figures, birds, flowers, buildings and landscapes.
However, he was best known for 仕女画 (belle painting) and 界画 (ruler-lined painting), which refers to the traditional Chinese painting of architectural subjects, such as buildings, boats, wheeled vehicles, and other mechanical apparatuses with the aid of various rulers.
Qiu’s masterpiece Spring Morning in the Han Palace is a perfect combination of the two.
The long handscroll depicts a variety of activities on a spring morning in the imperial palace of Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), though some of the objects and textile patterns apparently belonged to the painter’s own time.
In the painting, there are altogether 115 figures, including court ladies, maids, eunuchs, painters and children. In an idyllic atmosphere, some of them are unhurriedly sweeping the yards, watering flowers or carrying things about, others are playing Chinese musical instruments, appreciating paintings, playing chess, reading books, chasing a butterfly or dancing and chatting.
One of the major scenes in the painting portrays a group of court ladies and maids watching an imperial palace artist paint the portrait of another court lady, which was common practice during that time as emperors usually depended upon portraits to pick the court ladies. So, the ladies always bribed the artists to paint them prettier than they really were.
This scene reminds many viewers of the story about a beauty in the Han palace who refused to bribe her portraitist. As a result, the artist painted her less pretty than other court ladies, thus denying her the opportunity to meet the emperor.
Later, when the emperor gave the beauty away to a chieftain from a northern nomad tribe as his wife, he found out that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. In a flash of rage, the emperor ordered the immediate execution of the portrait painter.
From right to left, the usual way of appreciating almost all traditional Chinese handscroll paintings, one will find that scenes in this artwork are very well arranged in an intricate and rather sophisticated composition. The brush works here are crisp and refined and the colors are bright and elegant.
Qiu’s court ladies and maids in this painting are so well portrayed that the artwork soon became a paradigm of belle painting or traditional Chinese painting of beautiful women for Chinese artists in the following centuries.
Dozens of Qiu’s artworks survived the centuries, and Spring Morning in the Han Palace is now housed at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Brush away the mystery of traditional Chinese painting
Chinese painting, also known as brush painting or ink-wash painting, is one of the oldest art forms in the world. However, the varied styles, techniques, perspectives and symbolism of such paintings are often very different from most Western art works. Also, the tools and media employed by the artists of traditional Chinese painting, such as inksticks, inkstones, rice paper and brushes, are unfamiliar to many Westerners. As a result, Chinese paintings, including many masterpieces, may seem mysterious to our readers.
This column, jointly generated by our columnist Peter Zhang and art editor Chen Jie, aims to explain the aesthetic concepts behind Chinese paintings and tell some interesting stories about their creation and their creators. Zhang and Chen will also explore the often multiple layers of meanings hidden in Chinese paintings and give a better understanding of such works through visual analyses.
We hope this column will prove to be a valuable guide in exploring the fabulous, yet mysterious world of great Chinese paintings.
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