Lot 139
139
QIU YING (circa 1595-1652) and WEN ZHENGMING (1570-1659)

Details
QIU YING (circa 1595-1652) and WEN ZHENGMING (1570-1659)

Emperor Minghuang's Journey to Sichuan

Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 21 x 72in. (55 x 183cm.)

Unsigned and without artist's seal

Frontispiece by Wen Zhengming in large clerical script calligraphy (li shu): "Chu chuan jia li" ("The beauties of the Sichuan Era"), 20½ x 46 7/8in. (52 x 119cm.) and with two seals of the artist: Wen Zheng Ming yin, Zheng Zheng

Postscript by Wen Zhengming in large running script calligraphy (xing shu) of the poem "Shudao Nan" ("The Difficulty of the Path to Sichuan") by Li Bo of the Tang dynasty, 21 5/8 x 234¾in. (55 x 647cm.), signed: "Written in Yuqing Shanfang by Zhengming at the age of eighty-one", dated the fifteenth day of the fourth month of gengxu year of the Jiajing era (1550) and with two seals: Zheng Ming, Zheng Zheng
Total of nine collectors' seals, including five of Wu Yun (1811-1883) and one each of Mao Tong (late 17th century) and Li Rihua (1565- 1635)
Postscript: three seals of Wu Yun

Lot Essay

The painting depicts the "Journey of [Tang dynasty] Emperor Minghuang to Sichuan". It probably follows the theme of a painting of the same subject by an anonymous Song dynasty painter. The style and quality is typical of Qiu Ying's late works, although it does not bear the artist's signature or seals. The painting may have been framed, but the frontispiece and postscript by Wen Zhengming should have been written at the same time.