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Writer's picturediaofineart

China's Top Arts 中國頂級藝術

Top Masterpieces: 10. Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xuan's "The Tamping Lian Tu" 10. 頂級名畫: 唐朝张萱《搗練圖》


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Zhang Xuan was a court painter of the Tang Dynasty who was good at painting ladies. When he was still alive, he had a great influence and was imitated by his contemporaries. For this reason, he "marked his ears with red eyes" to show his distinction. Zhou Fang also imitated his painting style.

He is famous for his painting of aristocratic ladies and saddle horses in palaces and gardens. He is compared with the lady painter Zhou Fang who came after him in the history of painting. None of his works remain. Two hand scrolls copied by painters from the Painting Academy of the Song Dynasty remain in history: "The Lady of Guo State's Spring Outing" (collected by the Liaoning Provincial Museum) and "The Tamping Lian Tu" (collected by the Boston Museum, USA).

The subject matter of Zhang Xuan's paintings is the activities of figures in the palace. Although his figure paintings are limited to the palace, they show relatively large scenes, which prompted him to master the modeling techniques and expression techniques of various painting disciplines. Zhang Xuan fundamentally established the important position of lady paintings in figure paintings with her superb painting skills. Most of the paintings of ladies depict the court life scenes of noble women, concubines or other women. The images of ladies painted by Zhang Xuan have something in common with the images in Zhou Fang's works: women are generally plump and colorful, with meticulous brushwork and even colors. Zhang Xuan's paintings of beautiful women have a profound influence on the history of figure painting.

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