39. Crossing the frontier China, 16th–17th century The various characteristics typical of Chinese painted horizontal scrolls can be distinguished in this work. It was painted on silk and mounted on an ivory base, also made of silk, glued to a stiffer paper backing that is nevertheless easy to fold. A wooden rod with jade elements at the ends is fastened to the short end of the scroll and makes it easy to open (from right to left). A much thinner rod is mounted at the other end, and attached to it is a ribbon that ends in a clasp, also made of jade. According to James Cahill, the painted scene depicts the journey, across the frontier, of the imperial concubine Wang Zhaojun (Mingfei), whom the emperor Yuandi (48–32 BC) betrothed to a Xiongnu chieftain. This extremely well-known story is often represented in albums and scrolls of different sizes and qualities (for example, the scroll painted by Gong Suran in the early 12th century, now part of the Abe Collection at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art). Cahill (2006) has theorized that these scrolls were made specifically for an audience of women. The illustrated scene bears the signature and two of the chops (seals) of the Ming master Dai Wen Jin (1388–1462), but stylistic elements disprove his paternity of this work. Attributions to Chen Hongshou (1599–1652) and Fu Shan (1605–90), cited in two of the many colophons, are also false, as reported by Giovanni Peternolli. The Library acquired this scroll in 1981. Go up |
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