Spring Morning in the Han Palace by Qiu Ying, China • Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

 

Silk and bamboo music, light songs and dances, toasting and drinking, The touch of peach blossom on the beauty’s cheek, is it reflected in your heart?

MOUTAI

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Extended Reading:

“Spring Morning in the Han Palace” is one of the top ten famous paintings in China, drawn by the Ming Dynasty painter Qiu Ying, known as the “first long scroll of heavy colour beauties”. The ladies in the painting, gathered in groups of three or five, playing the zither and singing, dancing… reproducing the colourful and magnificent life of women in the ancient Chinese palace, while integrating scenes of playing chess, painting, antique appreciation, and flower planting, reflecting the literary and talent of ancient women not inferior to men.

In the dawn of spring, the life of the Han Dynasty court quietly unveiled… harem beauties, with a thousand manners: concubines, palace maidens, princes, attendants, painters, a total of one hundred and fifteen people. Some are watering flowers and pruning branches, some are playing music and dancing, some are reading and playing chess, some are embroidering and practicing… People are wandering in the courtyard, with high platforms and pavilions, green shade and lake stones, rare birds and famous flowers, a picture of elegant and leisurely court life is vividly on the paper, just like a fairyland.

In the middle of the painting, the dancers, either holding a pipa or playing with a stringed instrument, with seven or eight musical instruments and two or three wine utensils. It can be seen that the banquet is enhanced by fine wine, which is the same in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. In front of the corridor, a pair of bronze wine goblets are also placed. In the ancient Shang and Zhou periods (BC1600-AD256), this object was a wine vessel. Later generations loved its antiquity and used it for collection and appreciation, named Bogu (collection and appreciation of antiques).

The painter Qiu Ying depicts the graceful elegance of the royal family in the Han Dynasty in his imagination on the scroll. Although the costumes and hairstyles of the characters are mostly in the style of the Ming people, this does not prevent it from becoming a dazzling pearl in the history of Chinese classic art.

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