Niaopu (after Jiang Tingxi) by Zhang Weibang and Yu Sheng《仿蒋廷锡鸟谱》 张为邦 余省 绘
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Niaopu (after Jiang Tingxi) by Zhang Weibang and Yu Sheng《仿蒋廷锡鸟谱》 张为邦 余省 绘
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Description
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Jiang Tingxi was an earlier court artist to Zhang Weibang and Yu Sheng, an expert of fine-brush Huamiao hua. The Chinese art genre Huamiao hua (花鸟画), “flower-and-bird paintings,” generalizes paintings of flowers, birds, fish and insects. Jiang’s subjects were rendered in a bright palette, and with a delicate depiction of shadow and some hints of linera perspective. The sense of three-dimensionality in his works was from his study after western missionaries he encountered in the court. Niaopu, “book of birds,” was a popular book type for collection in the Qing court. Niaopu (after Jiang Tingxi) is a royal commission by Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799). Court artists Zhang Weibang and Yu Sheng facsimiled Jiang’s Niaopu into this book. Jiang’s original Niaopu contained 360 paintings but was unfortunately lost. Zhang and Yu’s facsimile was selective with an introduction of several new species, keeping a total number of 360 paintings. Each bird occupies two pages. On the recto depicted the bird in the fine-brush technique; on the verso, Emperor Qianlong commissioned his scholars to annotate the name, features, habits and characteristics, and quotations of the bird in classic texts like Shijing in both Mandarin and Manchu.
