Wu Zhifan’s brush holder with pine shade

[Wu Zhifan Bamboo Carved Pine Shade Cosette Penholder]

Wu Zhifan Bamboo Carved Pine Shade Cosette Penholder, Qing Dynasty, Wu Zhifan, height 15.2 cm, diameter 7.4 cm
The pen holder has a round body, three short feet, and a long and light body. The outer wall shows three old pine trees obliquely inserted in the clouds, with pine needles as pavilions. An old man is sitting at the pine root, with a wide robe and large sleeves, and his head is raised with his knees bent, looking out of the sky. He is intoxicated, while the shallow relief on the upper part of the pen holder covers the moon with clouds, echoing the people’s eyes from afar. The situation is clear and full of bookish atmosphere. There is an inscription of “Wu Zhifan” in the official script on the lower side of the Songgan
The ground relief technique of this work is very sophisticated, and it can be divided into levels within a limited height, such as the relationship between three pine trees, close to real and far from virtual, overlapping and turning, which is clear at a glance, and the posture and expression of the characters are also accurate and vivid everywhere. The surface of the instrument has a long history. The color of the decorative part is thick, and the color of the non-decorative part is light. It is like using ink on the canvas
Wu Zhifan has made many innovations in bamboo carving techniques. In addition to inheriting the tradition of Jiading round carving and multi-layer high relief, he has also developed a kind of shallow relief technique to remove the ground, which can show subtle concave and convex changes of objects in a small range. In the Records of Bamboo People by Jin Yuanyu of the Qing Dynasty, he named it “Bo Di Yang Wen”. The Wu family had a great influence, and even some researchers believed that a school of bamboo carving headed by Wu Zhifan had formed during the period of Kang and Yong


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