This is a landscape and figure painting, which creates a quiet and elegant artistic conception.
Looking around, you can see a green valley with a gurgling stream winding through it.
Amidst the rising mist, several thatched huts are scattered at random, hidden in the lush bamboo forest.
In front of one of the huts, a woman in her forties with a dignified and beautiful face was studying calligraphy at her desk.
The noble temperament exuding around it blends with the quiet scenery around it, giving it a unique charm.
This painting has a title: "Portrait of Mrs. Wei".
"It's actually a portrait of Mrs. Wei."
Who is Mrs. Wei?
She is famous in history.
As a great calligrapher, her calligraphy skills are extremely high. Some people praise her calligraphy as being otherworldly, like a dancing fairy, so magical!
It is also like the red lotus reflecting on the water, or the glow floating on the green marsh.
More than her status as a great calligrapher, Mrs. Wei is more well-known for her honor as the mentor of the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi.
Her tireless teachings were of great help to Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. Her enlightenment and teaching of calligraphy to the sage of calligraphy left a mark in the history of calligraphy.
Compared with the second painting known as Zhou Fang's work, this painting is obviously superior in terms of painting skills.
First of all, his brushwork is extremely mature and sophisticated. Whether it is the delicate depiction of characters' faces or the meticulousness of landscapes, they all show the artist's profound skills.
The shapes of the characters are lifelike, just like the pictures frozen by the camera, giving the viewer a sense of being immersed in the scene, which can be described as a judgment call.
Furthermore, judging from the paper, it is not a modern thing.
Looking at Zheng Jianan again at this time, his eyes were fixed on this painting, and it was difficult to look away.
"Is this person's real intention to come here for this portrait of Lady Wei?"
It's possible!
Very possible!
Shen Yu took a deep breath to calm down his somewhat confused mind.
After a short pause, he concentrated all his attention again. This time, his eyes were firmly fixed on the inscription on the painting.
The handwriting at the signature is simple and clear. There is no poetry and no time and date. There are only two small characters in italics: Zhang Xuan!
For a moment, Shen Yu only felt a "buzzing" sound in his head!
Zhang Xuan?
The master of painting in the Tang Dynasty?
This is really better than the other!
There are only three paintings on the wall. The first two paintings are works by Zhang Zeduan and Zhou Fang respectively. This third painting is even better, as Zhang Xuan appears directly!
Zhang Xuan, an absolute heavyweight in the history of painting!
He was not only Zhou Fang's mentor, but also pioneered the painting of beautiful ladies, and can be called the greatest master of painting of beautiful ladies.
His painting style is unique, his brushwork is delicate, and the characters' skin and subtle expressions are vividly displayed on the page!
The color control of the painting is also very strong, and the layout is extremely exquisite. Even if there are dozens of people in the painting, it will not make people feel messy at all!
On the contrary, it makes people enjoy watching it.
Its influence on the development of lady paintings in later generations was extremely profound!
Especially the painters of the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, when they painted pictures of ladies, they often respected Zhang Xuan as their enlightenment teacher!
Even Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, who was extremely picky about the art of calligraphy and painting, also favored Zhang Xuan's works and personally copied his "Lady Guo Guo's Spring Outing" and "Tao Lian Tu".
This shows the artistic charm and monetary value of Zhang Xuan's paintings.
Shen Yu's eyes returned to the painting in front of him, and he thought to himself: "Although this painting looks tattered, judging from the superb painting skills, it seems to be an authentic work by Zhang Xuan!"
As far as Shen Yu knows, there is indeed a "Portrait of Mrs. Wei" among Zhang Xuan's works, which seems to have been collected by the imperial palace of the Song Dynasty!
If this painting is truly Zhang Xuan's, it is undoubtedly a rare treasure. Its value cannot be measured by money at all. It is absolutely priceless!
However, Shen Yu's brows quickly wrinkled again!
In the Tang Dynasty, most painters did not leave signatures on their paintings!
This was a trend at the time, whoever signed the payment would be embarrassed!
The great painters of the Tang Dynasty preferred to let the works speak for themselves rather than express their identity through signatures. So from this perspective, the word "Zhang Xuan" appears on this painting, which seems a bit unreasonable!
Even pure and a bit redundant.
But it is undeniable that judging from the paper texture, pen and ink style and other aspects of the painting, this painting must be a genuine ancient painting.
Thinking of this, Shen Yu couldn't help but look at the portrait of Mrs. Wei on the wall again!
What is a picture of a lady?
Lady is not a maid, but a woman of noble status in ancient times.
Generally speaking, they are all high-ranking officials or from famous families.
She is also commonly known as the lady of the world and the daughter of a famous family!
For example, Zhang Xuan’s painting of the Lady of Guo State’s Spring Outing.
Mrs. Guo's real name was Yang Yuyao, and she was the third daughter of Yang Xuanyan, the chief minister of Shuzhou.
Her biological sister is one of the most famous women in history, Yang Guifei Yang Yuhuan!
The form of early lady paintings was relatively simple, often just a simple portrait with few picture elements, simple use of colors, and lack of variation in composition. The overall look was monotonous and boring, and it was difficult to show the colorful lives of ancient famous ladies.
But it was different starting with Zhang Xuan. Pictures of spring outings, paintings, snow appreciation, playing the piano and enjoying flowers, making tea and embroidery, and all kinds of entertainment were painted on paper.
It is equivalent to jumping directly from a simple ID photo to a blockbuster full of life. If such a person is not a master, who is a master?
Seeing this, Shen Yu secretly marveled at Xu Feng, a fat man.
This guy seemed carefree, but he didn't expect that he was so lucky that he could find such an ancient painting that was suspected to be Zhang Xuan's original work by chance.
Of course, this fat guy is just lucky!
His eyesight is obviously terrible!
Lost treasure!
After looking at the label, this painting was only priced at 120,000.
For such an ancient painting, even if it is a high imitation, it is ridiculously low, like cabbage price.
"Treasure appraisal!"
Shen Yu muttered silently in his heart, and immediately focused his eyes on the painting again.
In an instant, a ball of deep purple light suddenly appeared three inches above the painting.
It is about the size of a plump, ripe pecan.
When Shen Yu saw this, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly, and thought to himself: "I didn't expect it to be a Yuan Dynasty copy!"
Such a discovery was not only unexpected by Shen Yu, but also expected!
Unexpectedly: Shen Yu thought that the possibility of Zhang Xuan's original work was only 10%, and the remaining 90% was copied by other dynasties.
Unexpected: Shen Yu did not expect that this was actually a Yuan Dynasty copy. Judging from the walnut-sized treasure, the person who copied it must be quite famous.
The two characters "Zhang Xuan" were probably written on it by modern people who were ignorant.
It's just that I want to sell it for a little more money.
The master of lady painting is Zhang Xuan, so just write about Zhang Xuan!
It was definitely not written by a copyist!
"Xu Feng, Xu Feng, you are lucky if you meet me, your master uncle!"