Portrait of Confucius Disciples/Ancient Sages, Tang Dynasty, Yan Liben Hand Scroll, Color on Silk, Length 32.3 cm, Width 870 Cm Collection of the Capital Museum
A total of six of Yan Liben's works have been handed down, and this "Portrait of Confucius Disciple" is the largest and best.
The painting was bought by Japanese arms dealers in the early 1900s and is listed as a national treasure of Japan. After Zhongmao Shengjia Auction Company received the news that its descendants wanted to get rid of this painting, they immediately welcomed the national treasure back. As soon as the paintings returned to China, they immediately caused a sensation, and many museums said that they would buy them at a high price, and the Shanghai Museum also considered collecting them. The painting was eventually acquired in advance by the Capital Museum, which is located in the Confucius Temple, at an ultra-low price.
Tang Yan Liben's "Portrait of Confucius's Disciples/Ancient Sage Figure" Qianlong Imperial Inscription quotes the first line
part
"Portrait of Confucius's Disciples" quotes the Qianlong imperial inscription "Apricot Altar Legacy", and the bell "Ancient Rare Heavenly Son" Zhu Wenfangyin. From Jiang Pu's inscription, we know the circulation process of this map in the Qing Dynasty. First hidden in the Inner Mansion in the early Qing Dynasty, Shunzhi Three Years (1646) Qin gave the university scholar Song Quan, and then passed on his son, 112 years later, Qianlong Twenty-two Ding Ugly (1757), Song descendants transferred to him, for Jiang Pu to buy, that is, tribute to the inner court, Qianlong Imperial Inscription introduction and treasure, and written in the "Shiqu Baodi Continuation".
"Confucius Disciple Portrait" in the picture of 59 people, from the physical appearance of the comparison, the third person is Confucius, the future of the people are also similar in form, the order is the same, but there are omissions or additions in some places, such as the lack of Zixia between Zi Chi and Zi Gong, confucius before the two more. However, according to the song wuqian "Seventy-two Sages" volume in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing, the content of the portrait of Confucius and his disciples in this painting is unmistakable.
Yan Liben (c. 601 – 673) was a Tang Dynasty painter. A native of Yongzhou Wannian (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi). Sui will be the third son of the young supervisor Yan Bi, Yan Liben's painting art, first inheriting the family's learning, and then learning from Zhang Shengxuan and Zheng Fashi. It is said that he saw Zhang Shengxuan's mural in Jingzhou, stayed under the painting for more than ten days, sat down to watch, and was reluctant to leave. Later generations said that he was a teacher of the Fa monks, and the characters, carriages and horses, and Taihe all reached a very high level.
From the records of the Old Book of Tang, it can be seen that Yan Liben had literary talent and official talent, but the most prominent was the talent of painting art. Although he was ashamed to be called a painter and admonished his descendants not to learn painting, he was sexually pleasing and could not stop.
Text and pictures come from the Internet