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Abstract
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's Illustration to the Second Prose Poem on the Red Cliff, attributed to Qiao Zhongchang, has been long celebrated as a major achievement of early Chinese literati painting. Nevertheless, the lifelike portraiture of Su Shi and the depiction of an actual site, as well as the contemporary colophons, all point to a memorial function for the scroll. The early provenance of this handscroll indicates that Liang Shicheng, the eunuch at Emperor Huizong's court, was the one who commissioned it. The painting bears witness to the appropriation of the Li Gonglin style in the late Northern Song court.
KEYWORDS: Qiao Zhongchang, Red Cliff, Su Shi, Liang Shicheng, eunuch, Li Gonglin, court painting, late Northern Song, literati painting, memorial, appropriation
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The handscroll Illustration to the Second Prose Poem on the Red Cliff (Hou chibifu tu ..., Fig. 1), attributed to Qiao Zhongchang(active 1120s) and now at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, has attracted much scholarly attention since it was published in 1962.1 The painting is known as the earliest illustration to the Red Cliff poems by Su Shi ...(1037-1101), perhaps the most widely read works of Chinese literature.2 An attached colophon by Zhao Lingzhi ...(styled Delin ..., 1064-1134), a wellknown scholar and close friend of Su Shi, is dated to the eighth month of 1123, suggesting that the painting was made shortly before this time.
The narrative method and pictorial style are clearly associated with the tradition of Li Gonglin ... (1049-1106), another of Su's close friends and the most esteemed scholar-painter in the Northern Song dynasty ... (960-1127).3 The monochrome baimiao ...("plainline drawing") brushwork is the trademark style that Li developed to create his personal and intimate images.4 The hierarchically scaled figures and formulized drawing of houses demonstrate the archaism that Li often employed to distinguish his work from the realism of contemporary court painting. While few of Li Gonglin's originals survive, the Red Cliff handscroll has been celebrated as a testimony to the formative years of literati painting and considered a major achievement of the genre, conveying the deep "poetic intent" that scholarpainters most valued.
This traditional interpretation leaves some unanswered questions, however. Although most modern scholars agree on the date...