Antiques with golden eyes

"Yu'an, do you recognize the many seals on this painting?" Shen Yu asked, pointing to the dozen or so seals on the painting.

Pei Yu'an looked at it carefully and said, "Brother-in-law, I only recognize two of them. One is Xiang Yuanbian's 'Children and Suns Yongbao' seal, and the other one should be the 'Jiaqing Imperial Treasure'?"

Shen Yu nodded, "Look at the similarities between these seals?"

"The same? Brother-in-law, these seals are not owned by the same person. Some seals are hundreds of years apart. Moreover, these seals are different in size and shape. How can they be the same?" Pei Yu'an was directly asked by Shen Yu. Confused.

Shen Yu shook his head, "The shapes and sizes of the seals are indeed different, but these seals have one thing in common. You can look for them."

Pei Yu'an knew that Shen Yu's words would not be without purpose, but he looked up and down several times and couldn't find any clue.

"Brother-in-law, I really can't see any similarities between these seals. Just tell me directly."

Shen Yu knew that this kind of identification details was indeed difficult for Pei Yu'an, so he simply got straight to the point, "Look, the colors of these seals are all the same, and they are obviously from the same box of ink pads.

"For example, are the colors of the Yongbao Seal of Yuanbian's descendants and the treasure seal of Jiaqing Yulan exactly the same?"

"Color? Well, it does look similar, but shouldn't the color of the seal be like this?" Pei Yu'an frowned and savored Shen Yu's words for a moment before answering word for word.

A smile flashed across Shen Yu's clear eyes, "Wrong, Xiang Yuanbian was from Jiajing to Wanli Dynasty in Ming Dynasty. There is at least 150 years difference between Jiaqing and Jiaqing. According to common sense, the colors of the two seals should not be the same. Same.

"The earlier the seal is stamped, the lighter the color will be as time goes by. This is irreversible.

"Just like the silver in the Qing Dynasty will become black now, so the color of Xiang Yuanbian's seal should be slightly lighter or darker than the Jiaqing Yulan Treasure.

"Not just these two, all the seals on this painting are bright red in color. This alone is wrong. If you learn this trick when appraising calligraphy and paintings in the future, you will be less conspicuous."

Pei Yu'an looked around and asked Shen Yu in a low voice, "Brother-in-law, didn't Wanbaolou say it doesn't sell counterfeit goods?"

Shen Yu explained: "Wanbaolou does not sell fakes, but imitations are still sold, but the price of imitations is the price of imitations, never the price of the original. For example, the price of this painting is one hundred and three thousand, if so The painting is an authentic work by Zhao Yong, and you cannot buy it even if you multiply it a hundred times."

Pei Yu'an was quite regretful, "I thought it was a leak, but now it's out of the question."

Without wasting any more time, Shen Yu asked again: "What is your next favorite antique?"

Why did Pei Yu'an have to find this leak by himself first? Shen Yu felt that picking up leaks and hunting for treasure requires luck, and the luck of the person involved must be better than that of others.

There are thousands of antiques in the hall on this floor of Wanbao Building alone. Shen Yu felt that he could not finish them all in three to five days, let alone one day.

Pei Yu'an scratched his head, "It's still a calligraphy and painting."

Shen Yu was a little surprised, "Yu'an, it is said that there are tens of thousands of miscellaneous antiques in Wanbao Tower. How come you can only compete with calligraphy and painting?"

Pei Yu'an chuckled, "Don't I think the painting is too good? You see, these apes seem to be jumping off the painting. Maybe they are really the works of the greatest ape painter in the history of painting?"

"The greatest master of ape painting? Isn't that Yi Yuanji of the Northern Song Dynasty?"

"Yes, that's the "Six Apes" painting."

Under the guidance of Pei Yu'an, the two came to an ancient painting again.

Shen Yu looked at it intently, and saw that it was a giant scroll with colors on paper. The pictures on the picture showed the various naive behaviors of the apes after they had had enough wine and food in early summer.

The background is huge rocks and ancient trees.

I saw six apes of different colors, old and young, sitting or walking, hanging upside down or upright, scratching or jumping around on several towering trees and huge rocks.

The painter is indeed extremely good, lifelike and vivid on the paper, and several monkeys seem to be jumping down on the painting at any time.

The name of the painting is not unknown. Under the painting's title is: "Assistant Teaching Officer, Written by Yi Yuanji" in eight-character running script.

"It's really rare that Yi Yuanji's signature was left behind!"

Shen Yu suddenly became energetic. You must know that Yi Yuanji is a famous painter of Song Dynasty!

Are there Song paintings in Wanbao Tower?

Or is it the work of a super famous artist in the Northern Song Dynasty?

Impossible, Shen Yu frowned slightly.

"Yu'an, do you know who Yi Yuanji is?"

Having the opportunity to show off in front of an expert like Shen Yu, Pei Yu'an also became energetic, "Of course I know that Yi Yuanji, also known as Qingzhi, whose birth and death dates are unknown, was a famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty.

This person has been extremely intelligent since he was a child. He learned about flowers, birds, melons and fruits for the first time, and was fond of famous paintings by ancient people, thus laying a solid foundation in painting.

It wasn't until he saw the original paintings of flowers and birds by the great Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhao Chang that he was "in awe". To put it bluntly, he was completely convinced.

He believed that no matter how hard he tried, he could not surpass Zhao Chang, but Yi Yuanji was born with arrogance and did not want to be inferior to others, or even second in the world, so he found a new way to paint apes.

His life motto is "Only by transcending a realm that the ancients have not reached can you be called a famous person."

So Yi Yuanji began to learn from nature.

To learn from nature is to no longer learn painting from others, but to learn from nature, and absorb nutrients from nature to enrich one's painting skills.

And he also wants to create an unprecedented genre of his own, which is ape painting.

In order to be able to draw apes well, Yi Yuanji went deep into famous mountains and rivers, and observed the characters of apes in ancient and dense forests. He ate and slept in mountain homes for many months, and almost ate and slept with apes and deer. In the end, he was impressed by the wild nature of apes.

posture.

Even if he does not go into the mountains, he will raise animals at home, dig a garden and pond, and raise waterfowl and mountain animals with rocks, plums, chrysanthemums and reeds. After everything is done, he will peek through the small hole in the paper window to see their movement and sleep.

The state of breathing.

The painstaking efforts he poured into will not be in vain, and neither will the efforts. Each of the apes, monkeys and deer in his paintings are lifelike and may jump out of the painting at any time. Eventually, he became famous all over the world and was called the number one painter of apes in the history of Chinese painting.

People.

Tong Guan, a powerful official in the Northern Song Dynasty, liked Yi Yuanji's paintings very much and carefully collected them as treasures.

Liu Yuanyu was demoted directly in order to promote Yi Yuanji, a painter, to an assistant teaching position in calligraphy and painting.

In addition, ancient painting critics regarded the paintings of roe apes as Yi Yuanji's unique specialty, and believed that this was a unique skill that ordinary people could not glimpse into his vassal."

Shen Yu nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Pei Yu'an really knew a lot. After all, great painters like Yi Yuanji, not to mention ordinary collectors, were not familiar with them, even many palm-eyed masters.

It can be said that Pei Yuan's understanding of Yi Yuanji was completely beyond Shen Yu's expectations.