Although there was no camera in ancient times, the existence of the skill of painting still filled the gap of the real appearance left by the ancient royal family.
It's just that the camera is a machine after all, it will not change, whether you are beautiful or ugly or fat or thin, how to do it, and the painter is different, he will bring his own subjective emotions when he draws, even if it is finished, the people around him will also make some suggestions according to their subjective emotions, and even the people who are painted will also put forward their own "opinions", so it is easy to paint and I am far away.
And there is another situation, that is, the previous portrait is lost, and if you want to fill the previous blank, it is all up to the painter to exert his imagination, so the work that comes out is naturally far away. So many times, when we take out the ancient emperor statues, we always feel that as long as the order of these people is disrupted, we don't know who is who, or even look at the dress, and even which dynasty can't tell which dynasty.
Of course, these painters will also have some others, such as letting foreign painters with rectums paint, they come from abroad, are not under our jurisdiction, and do not know the twists and turns here, even if there is a little subjective emotion, but the work and my own image are actually not much different. During the Qianlong period, there happened to be such a foreign painter.
It's just that the portrait of Qianlong painted by this foreigner is also too different from the image in the classics! Did the ancient court painters ignore objective existence in their paintings?
A foreigner who painted for Qianlong
The matter should start from the foreigner who painted for Qianlong, whose name is actually familiar to people who have seen more Qing Palace dramas, his name is Lang Shining, and he was one of the early missionaries who entered China.
Born in Italy, Lang Shining liked to paint since childhood, and when he came to China, the Qing government at that time was still in power by Kangxi, and he admired Lang Shining's talent, so he allowed him to enter the palace to become a painter in the palace. It was just that Lang Shining had not yet had time to show his talents in front of Kangxi, and the following year, Kangxi died.
In the Yongzheng period, the missionaries were once suppressed, and Lang Shining, who was in the palace, escaped by virtue of Kangxi's appreciation, and then did not dare to make a sound, but only painted with a sullen head.
It was also during this period that Lang Shining also began to learn Chinese painting methods, and tried to integrate these painting methods with Italy, and his painting skills became more and more sophisticated, and he also had close contacts with other painters in the court, and in the Qianlong period, Lang Shining was even more highly praised for his painting skills.
Qianlong also admired Lang Shining's works, so since he ascended the throne, he also gave Lang Shining a lot of freedom, Lang Shining could even enter the palace to paint, and Qianlong occasionally had time to see how he painted.
Occasionally, when he is idle, he will also tease Lang Shining, saying that Since you paint in the harem every day and are surrounded by so many concubines, which concubine is the most beautiful in your opinion?
How to say that he has also been a court painter for many years, how to understand some people's feelings, as soon as he heard this, Lang Shining felt bad, saying that it was not good-looking, it would make the concubine unhappy, and then wear small shoes for himself, saying that it was good-looking, and he was afraid of offending the emperor and provoking the emperor's suspicions. However, unable to resist Qianlong's questioning, Lang Shining could only say that they looked good.
This obviously did not satisfy Qianlong, so this time Qianlong directly said, "Who is the better looking of those concubines you saw yesterday?" Lang Shining immediately said that he did not pay attention to their looks at all, and he counted the bricks on the wall. Originally, Qianlong, who was only planning to tease Lang Shining, gave up.
taking photographs
Although he has lived in China for many years and learned many Chinese painting methods, Lang Shining has always maintained the background of Western realism. Even after the fusion of Chinese and Western styles, he also has both the beauty of the artistic conception and the beauty of realism, and the most prominent representative work is the "Ten Dogs Diagram".
Qianlong, who admired Lang Shining's talent, naturally did not raise Lang Shining in vain, and occasionally ordered him to paint, and when Qianlong visited Lang Shining to paint, he directly asked him to paint a portrait for himself.
So Lang Shining painted a portrait of Qianlong in accordance with his own style, still a style of artistic conception and realism, the qianlong in the painting was a black winter coat, short in stature, and a pair of eight-character beard, a pair of eyes that seemed to be able to hit people's hearts, the flesh of the cheeks was not round but also full, and the most prominent was the firm eagle hook nose.
Such portraits are actually very different from the official portraits circulated in later texts. Because in the official portrait, Qianlong is a very standard "imperial appearance" - the heavenly court is full and the earth is square. Many portraits of emperors can see such a shadow, and the portrait will focus on depicting the emperor's spirit, pay attention to majesty and solemnity, and what is short in size and eagle hook nose will not appear on the portrait.
Of course, this is also inseparable from the traditional requirements of the court painters, after all, Chinese painting has always paid attention to the artistic conception, so in order to highlight the majesty of the emperor, other contents that are detrimental to the prestige will be selectively eliminated, and the weiyi alone is not enough, and the appearance must also meet everyone's expectations for the emperor. For example, the empress must be dignified and generous, and other concubines cannot look better than the queen even if their status is high... The same is true for the emperor.
But in the final analysis, after all, Lang Shining has also been influenced by the court painters for many years, and it is difficult to guarantee that he will not be affected, and the Qianlong he paints must be the real Qianlong?
What does the real Qianlong look like?
What the real Qianlong really looked like, after all, there was no video camera in that era, and we could not compare, but from the records of the same missionaries to China, perhaps we can find some clues.
This is a missionary from France, he actually recorded not Qianlong, but Kangxi, in his biography for Kangxi, he described Kangxi in his forties, saying that Kangxi was tall, well-behaved, and had good facial features... These words are more general, and I can't see anything, but the next few points are described in great detail.
In his expression, the Kangxi Emperor left some acne marks on his face because of smallpox, but these were nothing in front of Kangxi's imperial ceremony, and more importantly, Kangxi's eyes were particularly divine, as if they had a penetrating power, and the nose tip of the nose was slightly rounded, and there was a bit of an eagle hook.
As we all know, Kangxi and Qianlong are grandfathers and grandsons, so at first glance, Qianlong should indeed look like an eagle hook nose.
And the winter coat map that Lang Shining made for Qianlong has also been emphasized to the outside world, saying that it is a 1:1 reproduction, in addition to this work, Lang Shining's other painting for Qianlong is still short in stature and eagle hook nose.
Moreover, in the face of such paintings, Qianlong was not half unhappy, but gave Lang Shining a great reward, obviously Qianlong was also satisfied with Lang Shining's "reproduction", if it is fake, I am afraid that Qianlong himself will not be happy to do it first.
epilogue
Today, Lang Shining's paintings for Qianlong are included in China's museums, which also allows us to experience the true style of Qianlong at close range, which is extremely precious.
From these paintings, we can also feel that the difference between ancient court paintings and realistic paintings gives us more room for imagination about the appearance of ancient figures, which is also a kind of imaginative beauty.
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