DOI Heft:
Nr. 192 (March 1909)
DOI Artikel:Jessen, Jarno: Chinese painters in Berlin
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20966#0140
Chinese Pictures
PORTRAIT OF A FAMOUS CHINESE BEAUTY
BY CHEN-CHAO-SHOU (ABOUT 1500)
flowers, formed the register of motifs. One of the
portraits carries with it a romantic bit of history.
It is that of a beauty (above) who is frequently
mentioned in Chinese literature. Her portrait was
one of the 300 submitted in accordance with
custom to the Emperor in order that he might
select a wife, but the story goes that the painter
not receiving a bribe failed to do justice to her
charms, and the Emperor instead of making her
his consort gave her to a Mongolian prince. When
the Son of Heaven first saw her soon after her
marriage he wept bitterly.
The main enjoyment often centred in the finish,
in the treatment of costume, of plumage, of the
skin of the animal, of the veining of the petal,
the finish of the Diireresque draughtsman. From
the standpoint of our European art-training one
could not fail to recognise that scientific form
was not strictly observed by these Chinese artists,
that defects of anatomy, occasionally also of
psychology, were perceptible. We missed the
intelligence of observation in perspective, in the
gradation of tones, in the art of sacrificing details
118
to unity of object, and yet we went home com
pletely captivated. The depth of feeling, the
subtlety of vibrating colours, the eloquence of
expression, and the picturesqueness and grace of
composition—all these characteristics betokened
high art.
The oldest and highest epoch of Chinese
painting was that of the Sung dynasty, when
artists attained their perfection in landscape;
and a few of such precious and venerable works
figured in the exhibition. During the three cen-
turies of the Ming dynasty artists gradually
“SEWING WOMAN'’ SIGNED CHANG-WEI
(beginning of tching epoch)
PORTRAIT OF A FAMOUS CHINESE BEAUTY
BY CHEN-CHAO-SHOU (ABOUT 1500)
flowers, formed the register of motifs. One of the
portraits carries with it a romantic bit of history.
It is that of a beauty (above) who is frequently
mentioned in Chinese literature. Her portrait was
one of the 300 submitted in accordance with
custom to the Emperor in order that he might
select a wife, but the story goes that the painter
not receiving a bribe failed to do justice to her
charms, and the Emperor instead of making her
his consort gave her to a Mongolian prince. When
the Son of Heaven first saw her soon after her
marriage he wept bitterly.
The main enjoyment often centred in the finish,
in the treatment of costume, of plumage, of the
skin of the animal, of the veining of the petal,
the finish of the Diireresque draughtsman. From
the standpoint of our European art-training one
could not fail to recognise that scientific form
was not strictly observed by these Chinese artists,
that defects of anatomy, occasionally also of
psychology, were perceptible. We missed the
intelligence of observation in perspective, in the
gradation of tones, in the art of sacrificing details
118
to unity of object, and yet we went home com
pletely captivated. The depth of feeling, the
subtlety of vibrating colours, the eloquence of
expression, and the picturesqueness and grace of
composition—all these characteristics betokened
high art.
The oldest and highest epoch of Chinese
painting was that of the Sung dynasty, when
artists attained their perfection in landscape;
and a few of such precious and venerable works
figured in the exhibition. During the three cen-
turies of the Ming dynasty artists gradually
“SEWING WOMAN'’ SIGNED CHANG-WEI
(beginning of tching epoch)