Abstract
The earliest Chinese handscroll extant painting is the ‘Nushi zhen’ by Gu Kaizhi housed in the British Museum, which is now often considered to be a Tang Dynasty copy of the original. This article shows the study of the representation of garment and accessories of the figure illustrations all-sided in the painting. And by comparing with correlated literature and images, it opens out the typical skills and style in which the ancient Chinese figure painters of Jin Dynasty (AD 265-420) depicting the apparels in the handscroll painting.
Highlights
2009 court lady advancing towards the Emperor, who was repulsing her with a gesture of his raised hand
The drapery is portrayed with long, continuous and even brushstrokes; movement is shown through the vitality of the swirling draperies, a continuation of Han Dynasty traditions
The facial expressions of the figures have advanced beyond the generalised types of Han figures; the characterisation of facial expression here is closer to portraiture, displaying individual character and emotion, etc
Summary
The handscroll ‘Nushi zhen’ depicts forty figures totally, including eighteen ladies, seventeen men, and five children. The upper part of Tongtian hat was painted like ribbon, and the tie part of hat was illustrated in two segments, with the wider line representing Ying and the thinner lines hiking up like dragon antenna representing Wei, which hinting the afeared feeling of Emperor Yuan of Han. That means the painters in Jin Dynasty had begun to use diverse lines to make a clear distinction of different apparel parts, to concern the expression of lines and shapes to show the figure’s innermost being. The men’s deerskin hats showed in Figure-4 painted with stronger third dimension by two lotus-leave-like parts standing towards two directions in front of the forehead, with alternation of black and white strips. The presentation was undoubtedly superexcellent, which exceeded the anterior paintings on the stones and bricks of Han
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