Gu Kaizhi The Sequel

Please take a look at Wikipedia’s Gu Kaizhi page here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_Kaizhi

Gu Kaizhi is described as a Royal Officer, poet, painter, calligrapher and prolific art writer of the 4th and 5th Century C.E (c. 344–406).  Of the clan Gu, raised in the Wuxi, Jiangsu district.

Lu Tanwei, his latter art contemporary (circa late 5th Century), painted murals whereas Gu Kaizhi crafted his works almost entirely on scrolls.

Whilst writing I’m keen to read the ‘Shishuo xinyu’ [A New Account of the Tales of the World] dated circa 430 which provides further historical legends and factual commentaries about hundreds of early Chinese writers, painters and musicians including, I understand, Gu Kaizhi.

Modern era painter Maeda Seison spent fifty days in the British Museum sketching and copying The Admonitions Scroll as a painting exercise of its [original] mastery.  Please see pages 12 & 13 of the following online pdf for further details:

http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/12784/1/Court_Ladies_Scroll.pdf

– Courtesy of The Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies Scroll by Kohara Hironobu.

Reverence for Gu Kaizhi and his work is genuine and sufficiently documented.  Historical writings of Kaizhi show him as an empathic, emotional, articulate, intellectual and deeply respectful person.

Due to language barriers I’m not able, through internet searches, to find as much information as I’d like about Gu Kaizhi as a person and artisan.  Without question I also require further information about Zhang Hua (232–300) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Hua

and Cao Zhi (192-232 CE) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_Zhi

Cao Zhi wrote ‘The Nymph of the Luo River‘, describing the nymph here:

‘Her body soars like a startled swan

Gracefully, like a dragon in flight,

In splendour brighter than the autumn chrysanthemum,

In bloom more flourishing than pine in spring;

Dim as the moon mantled in filmy clouds,

Restless as the snow whirled by the driving wind.

Gaze far off from a distance:

She sparkles like the sun rising from the morning mists;

Press closer to examine:

She flames like the lotus flower topping the green wave.’

‘Hylas and the Nymphs’ by John William Waterhouse immediately sprang to mind, one of my all-time favourite paintings.

Ancient oriental poems and paintings sharing themes of folklore with Western culture is deliciously fascinating.  Having recently viewed ‘The Great Wall’ [2016] starring Matt Damon, our appetite for myths and legends cannot ever be satiated.

Watching along with Willem performing ‘You can visibly see that stone floors prevent not the curtain nor Heights the Depths.’

Happily Ever After just like ‘The Highlander’ [1986].

I would love to see a verified original Gu Kaizhi painting in its likeness as we see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxRsjzK7bH0

‘There Can Be Only One’

– by The Unfathomable Artists