Four tribute bringers

Description:

China, Ming dynasty
51 x 67,5 cm, R.
Horizontal picture with brocade frame, ink, colours and gold pigment on silk. The composition may have been part of a longer horizontal scroll. The best-known horizontal scroll with this subject is attributed to Yan Liben (ca. 600-673), the leading figure painter of the seventh century. It is housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei and depicts twenty-six different foreigners and barbarians bringing valuable and rare gifts to the Chinese emperor. It too is only part of a longer composition. The present painting takes up this tradition, but was created much later, perhaps in the 17th century. At the beginning of the procession strides a guard wearing what appears to be a Buddhist headdress, a long robe and sandals with finely knotted laces. He carries the tusk of an elephant in both hands. The three following bearers are depicted with barbaric facial features, partly half-naked and barefoot. The first is leading a green horse with yellow spots and a white scaled belly on its tail, reminiscent of the mythical creature Qilin. It carries a colourful vase on a lotus base, filled with coral, a multi-coloured stone and a millet on its back. The next one wears a large shell on his head, filled with coral and colourful pearls. The fourth has a large vase on his back, also filled with coral and pearls. The figures are finely painted with expressive faces, correct perspective hands and feet and the colours are also of good quality, especially the vermilion. The dynamically waving vines and fluttering banners are convincingly depicted in a virtuoso and spatial manner and suggest a very early model for the composition. The details executed in gold pigment, such as the earrings, tiaras, bracelets and outlines of the rock in the vase, also point in this direction. Framed under glass.
From an old Bavarian private collection, collected since the early 1960s - Weartraces of age, minor rest.