This fan is a figure painting, the Chinese picture made to be unrolled or unpinned a section at a time rather than seen all at once. the Tang painter’s hand that made it assumed a viewer in motion.
The figures subject is the excuse. What the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) painter sold was a way of looking, disciplined and unhurried.
Tang manufacture met the Silk Road head-on, absorbing foreign forms and motifs into a cosmopolitan court aesthetic.
A fan like this was made to be handed on, not framed forever. The figure painting still asks you to slow down, which is the whole point.
Object details
| Name | Figure painting fan (丁观鹏画人物张照临董其昌书唐诗成扇) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 故00006895 |
| Technique | Figure painting (人物) |
| Period | Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) |
| Collection | The Palace Museum, Beijing |
| Source | Palace Museum Digital Collection (数字文物库) |
Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum Digital Collection.