Inherit For Three Thousand Years

After Zhang Donggao's appraisal was completed, Yu Zongwen couldn't wait to ask: "Is this "The Picture of the Return of the Five Kings Drunken"?"

"That's right, this is indeed the authentic work of "Five Kings Returning Drunken" by Ren Renfa in the Yuan Dynasty." Zhang Donggao was also very excited to have the honor of appraising such a national treasure painting.

Yu Zongwen frowned and asked, "Looking at Chen Jiru's inscription above, this painting should be made by Tang people. I originally thought Ren Renfa's seal was Jianzang seal, isn't it?"

Although Ren Renfa was a famous artist in the Yuan Dynasty, if this painting is an authentic Tang Dynasty work, its value will definitely be even higher.

On this painting, Chen Jiru's inscription reads: Emperor Wenhuang of Tang Dynasty carved the six horses of Zhaoling in stone, so his descendants had a lot of horses; It is decorated with gold lees, controlled by purple jade whips, and fed with first-class materials. Therefore, his pictures have been spread among the world and sung endlessly. The inscriptions and postscripts of this volume have been cut and removed. Fortunately, Ma Shanger was safe. Mr. Wang Linguo of Wuxi has collected it, and his grandson Fuzhou Shoumanhui can protect it forever. The shape of Wowa is not in the water, but the shape of Yilu is out of the sky. It is determined to be the work of Cao Ba, that is, the Gonglin generation failed to compete with him. Chen Jiru among the clouds inscribed it in the Immortal House.

Judging by the inscriptions and postscripts, this painting should be a work of the Tang Dynasty. No wonder Yu Zongwen was puzzled.

Zhang Donggao explained: "Chen Jiru thought that this painting was made by Tang people. This is a preconceived idea. At the same time, like you, he mistakenly believed that the seals of Ren Renfa and others were Jianzang seals."

Next, Zhang Donggao gave a detailed explanation.

From the analysis of the pommel horse and the costumes of the characters in "Five Kings Drunken Returning", the shape of the pommel horse, horse ornaments, as well as the clothing, techniques and rendering of the characters all completely inherit the style and characteristics of the people of the Tang Dynasty. Coupled with the prevalence of antiquity in the Ming Dynasty, many ancient works like to increase the upper limit of the year.

Secondly, due to the inconvenient geographical conditions in ancient times, it was very rare to see famous sites. Chen Jiru's "Ni Gulu" is a collection of essays on Chen's art appreciation. It did not describe Ren Renfa. Even Wang Yongji did not know Ren Renfa until he saw it Li Jiuxin only recognized "Purple Taoxuan Miscellaneous Decorations", not to mention the style and appearance of the authentic works that have been passed down, so it is indeed understandable for him to mistake the Tang Dynasty.

In the inscription and postscript, Chen Jiru also clearly stated: "The posture is as hairy and bone-like as life, the so-called shape of a wowa is not in the water, but the shape of a scorpion."

"Wowa" is the hometown of Tianma, located in Dunhuang City, Gansu. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a poem "Send the Soldier Cao Judge to Loufan" by Lu Lun: "When the dragon species in Wowa scattered the clouds, the thousands of miles of flowers suddenly parted." The painter Cao Ba and his student Han Gan are both famous for their paintings of famous horses produced by Wowa and Lulu. The characteristics of the Tang horses are very consistent with the horses written by Cao Ba and Han Gan. This preconceived thought led Chen Jiru to write this postscript.

Mistaking the seals of Ren Renfa and others as Jianzang seals has a lot to do with the level of identification.

In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, many well-known painters had detailed records of Ren Renfa's poems and essays, so Chen Jiru must be familiar with who "Ren's Ziming" and "Yueshan Taoist" are on this volume.

However, Chen Jiru should not be familiar with Ren Renfa's paintings, and he lacks common sense of seal signing, so there is a misjudgment.

Due to the lack of status of the Ren family in the court, the tribute paintings they made were not appreciated by the Yuan Emperor, and their style of painting horses and horses did not form a radiant circle beyond the family in the Yuan Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, only the descendants of the Ren family and a few disciples passed on the ancestral style, and after that, the trend dried up.

The prestige of the Ren family at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was so small that their colleague Xia Wenyan seemed to have forgotten about their family and did not include them in the "Treasure Book of Drawings".

This shows that Ren Renfa's horse painting artistic appearance entered the Ming Dynasty. Apart from the non-appraisal collections that everyone knew about, the world's perception of his appearance is very strange, and they all know it from the records of ancient books.

The appraisal explanation given by Zhang Donggao was so professional that Yu Zongwen and others were greatly impressed.

The rise of Zhang Donggao's words,

Further explaining the reason for his identification: "The identification of this painting, including the identification of mounting and paper, is also critical."

Zhang Donggao first analyzed and explained the mounting.

The main source of court collections in the early Qing Dynasty was the collection of famous private collectors such as Liang Qingbiao, Sun Chengze, Geng Zhaozhong, Geng Jiazuo, Suo'etu, An Qi and others.

Most of the existing appearance of this volume retains the original mounting of the Qing Palace, except for the damaged head. This kind of silk with cloud and crane pattern is often used in the old collections of Liang Qingbiao and Geng Zhaozhong.

The volumes compared above are all originally mounted in the Qing palace, and the following are the mounted appearances of "Picture of People and Horses" and "Picture of Zhang Guolao Seeing the Emperor of Ming Dynasty". "Five Kings Returning Drunken" also comes with the original court jade besiezi.

He then went on to analyze the interpretive paper.

Year identification is the most complex and difficult non-destructive identification method in ancient calligraphy and painting identification. Generally, it depends on experience and eyesight. Those with experience mainly look at materials, patina, and painting style.

The material may not be absolutely authentic in the present, because it is not ruled out that later generations may use ancient materials to fake it, but if the material is wrong, it must be wrong.

Not every material can be identified accurately, but fortunately, the paper used in "Five Kings Drunken Returning" is relatively easy to identify.

Experienced appraisers can judge that this is Song Dynasty paper from the texture, fineness, patina, and fineness of the surface of the roll. It is easier to judge if you look at the curtain pattern against the light.

"Five Kings Returning Drunken" was photographed in front of the light box, and the curtain patterns are clear. It can be seen that the distance between the curtain patterns is about 34 mm, which is about the width of two fingers.

After listening to Zhang Donggao's explanation, everyone felt that they had learned a lot.

Zheng Xiaowu also spoke out to ask his own doubts: "The five seals of Qianlong Yulan's treasure are different from the ink pads of the three seals of Shiqu Dingjian, Baoji Recompilation, and Qianqing Palace Jianzangbao. What is going on?"