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Night Revels of Han Xizai
Gu Hongzhong
A court painter's report delivered as a scroll, and a benchmark for the handling of early Chinese silk.
- Artist
- Gu Hongzhong
- Date
- 10th century, Song copy
- Medium
- Ink and colour on silk handscroll
- Dimensions
- 28.7 × 335.5 cm
- Location
- Palace Museum, Beijing
History
What the record shows
Commissioned, by tradition, so that the emperor could see for himself how his minister spent his evenings.
The surviving version is a Song-dynasty copy of a lost Southern Tang original.
The pigments sit on a silk ground now close to a thousand years old; the scroll is shown rarely and never fully extended for long periods.
Provenance
Chain of ownership
- 01Southern Tang court, 10th century
- 02Qing imperial collection
- 03Palace Museum, Beijing
