The Red Cliff 赤壁圖卷 - previously attributed to Yang Shixian 楊士賢 (Introduction)
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| The Red Cliff 赤壁圖卷
Artist: previously attributed to Yang Shixian 楊士賢 (ca. 1120–1160), Chinese, Yuan dynasty or later Date: ca. 14th century Materials: Ink and color on silk Dimensions: 30.9 x 128.8 cm (12 316 x 50 1116 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, BostonKeith McLeod Fund Museum scroll information: The Red Cliff 赤壁圖卷 |
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| Introduction Red Cliff is a famous historical site located on the Yangzi River in Hunan province. A decisive battle took place there in 208 CE that foreshadowed the beginning of the period of the Three Kingdoms (San guo 三國, 220-280 CE). After the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) scholar-official and influential literati Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) visited the site while he was in political exile in the area and commemorated his visit in several poems, it became a popular subject in painting. This handscroll focuses on one single scene that depicts Su Shi's visit to Red Cliff in the company of his friends: Three men are shown sitting in a boat drinking wine while passing by the towering cliff in the beginning section of the handscroll. This scene references Su Shi's First Red Cliff Rhapsody 前赤壁賦, in which he describes how he and two friends went to the site by boat, drinking wine, chanting poems, watching the moon, remembering the battle at Red Cliff, and reflecting on the transience of human life and human history. Su Shi's First Red Cliff Rhapsody is also inscribed in one of the colophons following the painting. The composition of the handscroll is unusual in placing the focal point – the boat passing by Red Cliff – quite abruptly in the beginning without a visual introduction. While the right side of the handscroll is densely populated with rocks, cliffs, and trees that frame the depiction of the boat, the long remainder shows a broadening expanse of water framed by a low shoreline and mountains in the background. As opposed to other paintings in the handscroll format that emphasize Su Shi's visit to the site, the Boston scroll clearly emphasizes the landscape. A similar composition, however with the boat passing by Red Cliff in the center of the handscroll, attributed to the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) painter Wu Yuanzhi 武元直 (active late 12th century) is in the collection of the National Palace Museum Taipei. The painting was traditionally attributed to Yang Shixian 楊士賢 (1120-1160), a court painter under Northern Song emperor Huizong 徽宗 (reigned 1100-1126) and Southern Song emperor Gaozong 高宗 (reigned 1127-1162). This attribution is based on a fragmentary signature, which is now believed to be a later addition. The scroll is currently dated to around the 14th century mostly for stylistic reasons: While some features, such as the careful depiction of water and waves in gentle curves and the angular surface definition of cliffs and rocks, are indebted to Southern Song court painting, the overall composition, pictorial space, and brushwork suggest a later date. With few exceptions, most seals and colophons on and behind the painting are believed to be later forgeries including the colophon by the Ming dynasty painter Wen Jia 文嘉 (1501-1583) that quotes Su Shi's First Red Cliff Rhapsody. Reference: Wu Tung (ed.), Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Tang through Yuan Dynasties, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts and Tokyo: Otsuka Kogeisha, 1996, v.1, cat. no. 126, pp. 107f. Wu Tung (ed.), Tales from the Land of Dragons: 1000 Years of Chinese Painting, Exhibition Catalog, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1997, cat. no. 151, p. 235 Jerome Silbergeld, “Back to the Red Cliff,” Ars Orientalis 25 (1995), 19-38 Daniel Altieri, "The Painted Visions of the Red Cliffs", Oriental Art, vol. XXIX, no. 2 (1983), 252-264 Ursula Toyka-Fuong, Die Rote Wand: Geschichte und Dichtung in der Malerei Chinas, Bonn: R. Habelt, 1982, 127-134 Victor H. Mair (ed.), The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, 438-441 | ||||