Filial Piety Sutra scroll

[Filial Piety Sutra Map Volume]

Filial Piety Sutra Map Volume, Song Dynasty, silk version, color setting, vertical 43.8 cm, horizontal 823.7 cm
No author’s stamp. The seal of “Cao Rong’s Secret Play” and the seal of Qianlong, Jiaqing and Xuantong’s internal government collection in the Qing Dynasty are 10 in total
The author presents the contents of the first nine chapters of Deng’s “The Book of Filial Piety” in the Tang Dynasty in nine paragraphs in the form of diagrams, which are in order: first, the chapter of the founding of the emperor, second, the chapter of the empress concubine, third, the chapter of the three talents, fourth, the chapter of the wise, fifth, the chapter of the brother-in-law, sixth, the chapter of the emperor, seventh, the chapter of the wife, eighth, the chapter of filial piety, and ninth, the chapter of the commoner. The original text of “Filial Piety Sutra” in ink is corresponding to each picture
The figure’s clothing pattern in the figure is drawn with iron lines. The lines are even and flexible. While accurately depicting the behavior of the figure, it also shows its own succinct and rhythmic beauty of urgency and severity. The leaves are painted with neat double hooks, and the branches and leaves are superimposed on each other, which is both hierarchical and trivial, showing the author’s meticulous observation ability and realistic skills. The main tone of the picture is dark brown, with cold colors such as white, dark green and cyan gray, which makes the picture fresh and lively in high classical elegance and romantic in the deep and dignified atmosphere
One of the creative purposes of Chinese figure painting is to emphasize the political enlightenment function of painting. Zhang Yanyuan of the Tang Dynasty clearly pointed out in his “Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties” that “painters, who become enlightened, help people’s relationships, become poor and change their spirits, measure the faintness, share the same achievements with the six books, and carry out the four seasons at the same time”. The earliest extant works to promote women’s virtue and women’s precepts in the form of picture scroll are the “Women’s History Proverbs” and “Women’s Wisdom” created by Gu Kaizhi (biography) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Filial Piety Sutra, as the subject matter of painting, was carefully created by the painter Shi Ke as early as the reign of Meng Chang, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. According to the “Xuanhe Painting Manual” compiled by the Inner Court of the Song Dynasty, Shi Ke drew only eight pictures based on the “Filial Piety Sutra”, but his works did not survive in the world. This painting of the Filial Piety Sutra, created by an unknown painter in the Southern Song Dynasty, has become the best preserved and earliest representative work reflecting the content of the Filial Piety Sutra
With its high artistic attainments, this scroll shows the mature style and features of the painting of beautiful women in the Song Dynasty to the world. Each picture forms its own independent picture according to the different content. At the same time, the author uses the figure’s shape, clothing and unified ink form to make each picture relatively independent and connected with each other, thus achieving the artistic effect of scattered and concentrated. The main objects in this picture volume are groups of beautiful women, who wear high buns and are decorated with hairpins. Their faces are round and plump. They still have the features of the beautiful women paintings of the Tang Dynasty, but their body has no longer the bloated, gorgeous and fat body of the beautiful women paintings of the Tang Dynasty, showing the trend of transition to the slender and beautiful body of the beautiful women paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Their curvaceous figure is fully displayed by the author, with slim waist and slim hands, graceful and light. The characters are elegant and elegant, dignified and quiet, and their movements are also regular, which vividly illustrates the words and deeds that feudal women must abide by, such as motherhood, wisdom and benevolence. The author is very successful in dealing with the relationship between the characters and the environment. Although the number of trees interspersed in the characters is not large, the natural environment of calm and tranquility is built as the background of the characters’ activities, which enriches the space of the characters’ activities and adds vitality to the painting used for preaching. And the virtuous women and martyrs who talk about scriptures under the tree or are diligent in needlework add a bit of noble interest to this quiet situation
This picture was originally painted by the Tang Dynasty, but according to its meticulous style and the shape and decoration of the objects displayed in the picture, it should be written by the painter of the Southern Song Academy of Painting
The first edition of Shiqu Treasure Collection of the Qing Dynasty.