Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk 搗練圖 - attributed to Emperor Huizong 徽宗 (Introduction)
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| Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk 搗練圖
Artist: attributed to Emperor Huizong 徽宗 (1082–1135) Date: early 12th century Materials: Ink, color, and gold on silk Dimensions: 37 x 145.3 cm (14 916 x 57 316 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, BostonSpecial Chinese and Japanese Fund Museum scroll information: Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk 搗練圖 |
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| Introduction In Chinese poetry, working on silk is always related to the theme of longing for a husband who is far away from home due to forced labor or military service. In ancient China, women were supposed to prepare silk in the autumn to make winter clothes and send them to the male members of the family before the winter, especially those who were stationed in the northern frontier. This renders the theme of preparing silk and clothes sentimental and melancholy. Poems of preparing silk became popular from 4th century to 6th century as a part of the literary genre of sifu shi 思婦詩 (poems of ladies missing husband). This tradition continued into the Tang dynasty when this scroll was originally created. Preparing silk was part of the daily routine in autumns for every family. In the painting itself, there is no direct evidence that verifies the court identify of the ladies, even though they likely are from rich and noble families as their luxuriously embroidered silk clothes suggest. From another perspective, court ladies were actually encouraged to do weaving and sewing, because they were expected to be exemplary for ordinary women. In traditional Chinese society, which was essentially agricultural, weaving was regarded as one of the most important female virtues as opposed to the male responsibility of farming. In the Tang dynasty it was reported that the stone for pounding silk was listed as part of a princess’ dowry. Emperors of the Tang dynasty even rewarded the clothes made by the court ladies to the soldiers in front lines in order to stimulate the morale. At the same time, preparing clothes for the emperor was a good opportunity for the imperial concubines to show their loyalty and love to their faraway husband. Their single-minded occupation of making clothes, however, contrasted dramatically with their lonely life in the forbidden palace. Preparing silk thus became a repeated motif in the genre of Gongyuan shi 宮怨詩 (The Melancholy Poems of the Palaces). Excavated stamped bricks and stone engravings witness the prevalence of this motif from the Tang dynasty. It continued in the Song dynasty (960-1279) when this scroll and its well-known counterpart, Mou Yi’s 牟益 (1178-1242) Daoyi Tu 搗衣圖 (The Illustration of Pounding Clothes) were made. This scroll depicts three groups of ladies working on newly woven silk, namely pounding, sewing and ironing silk. In the right section, a group of four ladies is seen pounding white silk laid out on a square stone with wooden pestles in their hands. The middle of the pestles is thinner to facilitate their handling. Two ladies facing each other are pounding while the other two are resting. Leaning against her pestle, the lady on the left in a red jacket is pulling up her right sleeve in order to get prepared. In the middle section are two ladies, one shown in profile and sitting on a green mat, sorting out a skein of silk thread. Her companion is doing some sewing while sitting on a well-decorated stool. The left section of the scroll is naturally connected to the middle one by a young maid who is fanning a stove for ironing. To her left, two ladies are stretching a piece of white silk, while another one is ironing it with a bronze iron device filled with burning coals. A young maid is helping to keep the silk stretched and flat while a little girl in pink is playing beneath the fabric. Whereas Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin dynasty 金章宗 (r.1189-1208) in his inscription attributes this painting to Emperor Huizong (r.1100-1127), it is more likely that the scroll was copied by court painters in Emperor Huizong’s Painting Academy after the original piece from the Tang dynasty. The reason for this is twofold: firstly, painting ladies was not Emperor Huizong’s specialty; secondly, such refinement of the brushwork and coloration usually characterized works produced by professional painters in the Painting Academy. Critically speaking, the attribution of the original painting to Zhang Xuan (fl. 8th century), a famous Tang court painter, as claimed by Emperor Zhangzong, cannot be confirmed. Unlike the style of representing beauty by slim bodies in the Southern and Northern dynasties (420-589), the ladies’ plump faces and voluminous bodies show the typical fashion of the mid-Tang dynasty, when Zhang Xuan was active. In terms of the subject, Zhang’s specialty was figure painting especially ladies and children, which correspond well with the theme of this scroll. Furthermore, the title of Illustrations of Pounding Silk as one of Zhang’s works is recorded in the imperial painting catalog of the Song dynasty. These points explain why traditionally scholars have related this scroll to Zhang. Since none of Zhang’s original works survive today, it is almost impossible to reach a final conclusion about the attribution. This scroll was once in collection of the Imperial Secret Repository of the Jin dynasty (1115-1234), according to the inscription and seals of Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin dynasty. Little is known about the collection history of this scroll between the Jin and the Qing dynasties. In the Qing dynasty, it was acquired by the famous collector Gao Shiqi 高士奇 (1645-1704). The last collector before this painting left China is Luo Wenbin 羅文彬 (1845-1903), a scholar official and artist in the late Qing dynasty. Selected Bibliography Wu Tung (ed.), Tales from the land of dragons: 1000 years of Chinese painting, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1997, pp.141-143. Chen Jichun 陳紀春， "Tang Zhangxuan Daoliantu Jiqi Xiangguan Wenti" 唐張萱《搗練圖》及其相關問題 ( Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk by Zhangxuan of Tang dynasty and related problems), in Wenbo 文博 2007.1, pp.22-30. Li Hui 李暉，"Tangshi Daoyi Shixiang Yuanliukao" 唐詩“搗衣”事象源流考 (Research about the subject of “Pounding Silk” in Poems of Tang dynasty), in Huadong Shifan Daxue Xuebao 華東師範大學學報 2000.2, pp.119-123. Xu Bangda 徐邦達, "Song Jin Neifu Shuhua de Zhuanghuang Biaoti Cangyin Hekao" 宋金内府書畫的裝潢標題藏印合考 (Research about the Mountings, Inscriptions and Seals on the Paintings from Imperial Secret Repository of Song and Jin dynasty), in Meishu Yanjiu 美術研究1981.1, pp.83-85. | ||||