Celebrity Life

It’s been called the China’ most popular painting and even China’s Mona Lisa. It’s a prize possession of the Palace Museum in Beijing and is only unveiled to the public every few years, at most. It truly is a magnificent treasure, that astounds all who can catch a rare glimpse of it.

[caption id="attachment_208840" align="alignnone" width="1373"] Section 1 of the Qingming scroll[/caption]

But for all its fame and glory, it remains an enigma – concealing much more about its mysterious past than has been established as fact. Indeed, no-one in modern times knew of the scroll’s existence until scholars discovered it in the bowels of the Palace Museum in Beijing in 1954, after it was returned from Manchuria after the second world war. By some accounts, the scroll was a favourite of Puyi, the Last Emperor.

[caption id="attachment_208841" align="alignnone" width="1596"] Section 2 of the Qingming scroll[/caption]

Apart from the technical brilliance with which it was completed, there is so much that remains unknown about is handscroll measuring 25.5cm high and 5.25 metres long, depicting everyday life in a busy Chinese city.  And while the sheer technical brilliance of the scroll is there for all to see, just about everything else purported to be fact about its location, provenance and even its purpose is conjecture.

The work is attributed to Zhang Zeduan, who is to have lived from 1085-1145 and is often referred to as “the most popular court artist of the Song dynasty”. But the only historical mention of Zhang that has ever been found is in a written message (called a colophon) on the scroll itself, signed by one of its first owners in the subsequent Jin Dynasty when it was already some six decades old by its own account. No further hard evidence of Zhang has been found, either in other paintings or written accounts by other. Zhang Zhu, the colophon’s author and presumably no relation, was an official curator of paintings for the non-Han Chinese Jin Dynasty that conquered North China in 1126.

[caption id="attachment_208842" align="aligncenter" width="1553"] Section 3 of the Qingming scroll[/caption]

The colophon said that “Zhang Zeduan (styled Zhengdao) is a native of Dongwu [today’s Zhucheng, in Shandong province]. When young, he studied and travelled to the capital for further study. He showed talent for ruled-line painting (draughting and rendering), and especially liked boats and carts, markets and bridges, moats and paths. He was an expert in other types of painting as well.”

He concluded: “On the day after the Qingming festival, in 1186, Zhang Zhu from Yanshan wrote this colophon”.  This, as far as is known, is the only contemporary official mention of Zhang Zeduan.

Another problem for scholars is the scroll’s name, Qingming shanghe tu, which roughly translated from the same characters could be A stroll along the river during the Qingming Festival or Peace reigns over the river. The first name implies a period of stability and peace, while second implies a more volatile epoch.

Scholars are also divided over the location of the scroll. Some say it is Kaifeng, the venerable Song capital, while others say there is no reason to presume, especially as none of the buildings in the painting resemble ones known from records. The scene, they say, is of an idealised city. Many copies, some of them twice the length of the original, were made in subsequent centuries.

[caption id="attachment_208843" align="aligncenter" width="1174"] Section 4 of the Qingming scroll[/caption]

Valerie Hansen, a US professor of Chinese language and history who also supports the idealised city hypothesis, wrote in a 1991 essay The Beijing Qingming Scroll and its Significance for the Study of Chinese History: “We can only speculate about [the artist’s] unrecorded motives. It would have been natural for him to make his scroll as a reminder of the past glories of the Song, before the humiliating defeat [by the invading Jurchens] of 1126. If Zhang created his scroll under non-Chinese rule, and the first records place it in the Jin-dynasty imperial collection, he would have a good reason to depict a generic city defying easy identification. His scroll evokes a bygone time in which cities prospered and their residents flourished. Like more recent Chinese critics of the government, he left it to the viewer to deduce his target.

[caption id="attachment_208844" align="aligncenter" width="1790"] Last section of the Qingming scroll[/caption]

“The Qingming scroll is a masterful artistic creation, whose many layers of meaning defy a pat reading. With each viewing, the observer gains new understanding of the people and the city show in such vivid detail. The spellbinding artistry of the scroll, coupled with the lack of documentation about its maker and his subject, guarantee that future generations will fund the study of the scroll just tantalising – as their predecessors.”

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Arty Facts has on various occasions highlighted the long tradition of art worlds colliding, especially in Eastern and Western Art. Dating from the earliest contacts, including the works by a gifted Italian Jesuit master painter with a Chinese name who was court painter to three generations of Qing emperors.

Giuseppe Castiglione, let alone Lang Shining, are hardly household names in the West. And while most Chinese art students might not recognise the first name, there is an excellent chance they are familiar with the second. We are talking, of course, about the same person, an extraordinarily talented young painter from Milan, Italy, who travelled to China in the 16th Century as a young Jesuit missionary to spend the rest of his life teaching and painting three consecutive Qing emperors.

Castiglione was born in 1688 in Milan, and by 19 had been identified by the Jesuits for his artistic skill and was taught the greatest techniques of the Italian Renaissance. On the day of his initiation into the Jesuits in 1707 he was assigned to China, where his mission was to serve the imperial court as a painter so as to promote Jesuit policy in Beijing. While he appeared to have limited success in attracting religious converts in the Qing Court, he lasting legacy was, as Marco Musillo wrote in The Shining Inheritance: Italian Painters at the Qing Court, 1699-1812 was to “integrate, fuse, and translate European and Chinese techniques and elements to create a distinctive high Qing court style”.

“The Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor had requested that Jesuit experts in astronomy, painting, cartography and mechanics be sent to his court in the Forbidden City, where the Jesuits had attained a well-earned reputation, since the days of [Jesuit leader] Matteo Ricci, of bringing the most advanced Western knowledge and skills in science, mechanics and the arts in addition to their missionary work.”

Whereas many Christian missionaries around the world at the time tried to impose their religion with condescension – and often by force – China has been an advanced civilization for millennia was not about to adopt an alien religion from warlike foreigners on face value. But when Matteo Ricci arrived in China in 1582 he put aside the bible and attempted to create trust by engaging with Chinese culture while sharing the most recent advances in Western technology, science [in particular cartography and astronomy] and the arts. Jesuit missionaries in China also learnt the language and adopted Chinese names.

[caption id="attachment_208538" align="alignnone" width="1468"] Gathering of Auspicious Signs, Giuseppe Castiglione, 1723.[/caption]

Castiglione arrived in Beijing in 1715, taking up the challenge with aplomb of learning the Chinese language and artistic skills. In good time he began painting works that combined European techniques like chiaroscuro (the effect of contrasted light and shadow), linear perspective and realism with Chinese painting, symbolism and pigments. Castiglione differed from his Jesuit artistic predecessors by overcoming aesthetic chasm between European and Chinese tastes by combining the best of both into a new style that continues to astound and charm art lovers around the world.
Castiglione’s new Xianfa (“line method”) school of painting quickly became the favoured style of Emperor Kangxi, then his son Yongzheng. During the latter’s reign, Castiglione’s most famous paintings, Gathering of Auspicious Signs (1723) and the 7.7-metre-long scroll One Hundred Horses boosted his fame.

The now ageing Italian’s success peaked with Kangxi’s grandson, Qianlong, who loved him like a member of his own family, and who protected and championed him during a time when it was increasingly dangerous to be a Christian in China. Qianlong elevated Castiglione to official court painter in 1736, then in 1748 to administrator of the imperial parks and vice-president of the six boards, the highest rank ever attained by a Jesuit.

[caption id="attachment_208537" align="alignnone" width="1454"] Inauguration Portraits of Qianlong the Empress and the Eleven Imperial Consorts, Giuseppe Castiglione, 1736.[/caption]

The Emperor also recognised the power of this higher mode of artistic expression. To help keep the fragmented, multi-ethnic Chinese empire unified, Qianlong commissioned Castiglione to represent his image to different constituents, including Manchu warrior, Han royalty and Buddhist reincarnation.

Castiglione continued to blend European and Eastern aesthetics. He was even a competent architect, whose most important works included the magnificent Western-style pavilions in the Old Summer Palace, commissioned by Qianlong in 1747. Sadly, these were razed, ironically, by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War in the 1860s. Castiglione died in Beijing in 1766, 51 years after he arrived in China. Most of his surviving works, however, are housed in Taiwan’s National Palace Museum in Taipei.

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Coravin, the wine lover's dream device that lets you pour wine without uncorking, is back with brand new models.

As fans of the smart wine preservation system, we have observed Coravin for some time and seen the brand expand with new technology every year. Now, they have extended their product lineup with the launch of new systems -- Models Three and Six. What's more, all new and existing models have been equipped with SmartClamps™, which, prior to the launch, was only available on Model Eleven. The new easy-on and easy-off clamps are designed to go over the neck of the bottle and push down firmly on the handle in one fluid motion, making the system even easier to use.

Coravin's wine access technology is all down to the hollow needle that is inserted through the cork, before the system pressurises the bottle with Argon (an inert, colourless and odourless) gas, to pour the wine out. Once poured, and the Coravin is taken off the bottle, the cork reseals naturally -- allowing wine to stay fresh for months on end, and years if needed.

The new systems also comes with a Coravin Screw Cap which allows users to enjoy new world wine (with screw caps) the same way as old world wine (cork) bottles, preserving them for up to three months.

So, with four Coravin Models in total, Model Three, Five, Six and Eleven, which model is the right one for you? Well, let's find out shall we.

Coravin Model Three

Details: Model Three is an upgraded version of Coravin's Model One and features a clean and simple, user-friendly and functional design in matte texture.
Perfect for: the everyday wine drinker.
Price: HK$2,080

Coravin Model Five

Details: Model Five is not available for retail as it has been made specifically for trade. The design is simply elegant but durable.
Perfect for: those in the industry who favour classic design with metallic accents.
Price: email for trade price

Coravin Model Six

Details: Model Six is the upgraded version of the popular Model Two Elite edition, it also features vibrant colours with chrome accents.
Perfect for: luxury style and fashion lovers.
Price: HK$3,580

Coravin Model Eleven

Details: Model Eleven is the smartest device of the Coravin family. It is the first bluetooth connected and fully automatic system. It comes with LED display, glass pour optimisation, and connection to the Coravin Moments app, which tracks system statistics and advises on wine pairings with food, music and more.
Perfect for: technology and gadget enthusiasts who love a varied wine experience.
Price: HK$6,880

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Born in Adelaide as Margaret Rose McPherson in 1875, the painter and printmaker Margaret Preston is regarded as one of Australia’s pioneering modernist artists. She saw her work as a quest to develop an Australian “national art” and was one of the first non-indigenous Australian artists to use Aboriginal motifs in her work.

After her family moved to Sydney in 1885, Preston attended Fort Street Girl’s High School, a selective government institution for gifted students where her interest in art was kindled. In the following years she received one the best art educations to be had in the country, including the National Gallery of Victoria Art School under Frederick McCubbin from 1889 to 1894 then later the Adelaide School of Design in the city of her birth. Preston supported herself through scholarships and tutoring, with some of her students becoming notable artists in their own right.

[caption id="attachment_208121" align="alignnone" width="1665"] Sydney Heads, hand-coloured woodcut, 1925.[/caption]

In 1904, Preston and a former student, Bessie Davidson, set off for Europe where they remained until 1907. They travelled widely, but Preston was particularly taken with Paris where her interest in modernism was influenced by Cezanne, Gauguin and Matisse as well as Japanese art and design she viewed at the Guimet Museum with its notable collection of Asian art. It was Preston’s introduction to the Japanese print tradition of Ukiyo-e that informed much of her own work throughout her career.

Preston returned to France in 1912 with Gladys Reynell, another former student from Adelaide, but when World War I broke out they moved to Britain. In London Preston studied pottery and the principles of Modernist design at the Omega Workshops of Roger Fry, of the Bloomsbury group. Preston, along with Reynell, later taught pottery and basket-weaving as therapy for shell-shocked soldiers at the Seale Hayne Military Hospital in Devonshire. She exhibited her work in both London and Paris during this period.

[caption id="attachment_208119" align="alignnone" width="1608"] Fuchsias, 1928.[/caption]

On her way back from a visit to the United States, Preston met her future husband, William Preston, a recently decommissioned Australian Army lieutenant who had served in France. They were married on the last day of 2019, by which time William had returned to a successful business career that allowed Margaret the freedom to continue her work with financial security. They lived mostly in Sydney’s delightful harbourside suburb of Mosman, home to many of the city’s notable artists. They moved for seven-year interlude to the bush suburb of Berowra on the Hawkesbury River during the 1930s – a move that inspired her produce more landscape paintings. They later returned to Mosman.

Preston grew increasingly aware recognition of the connection between country and art in Aboriginal culture, which informed her work prompted to study sites of Aboriginal rock painting around Australia. Preston held her last major exhibition in 1953 and gave her last public lecture at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1958. She died in May 1963.

[caption id="attachment_208120" align="alignnone" width="1721"] Margaret Preston, self portrait 1930.[/caption]

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Hong Kong's ever-changing dining scene is constantly evolving.

So much so, that it can get a little difficult to keep track of it all, let alone remember to book and try the new restaurants that have caught your eye. From brand new concepts to fresh venues and additional locations, here is our guide to seven of Hong Kong's most promising new restaurants to try right now.

Well, what are you waiting for...

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The international art world was saddened to learn of the passing of one of its truly great characters, the Bulgarian-born sculptor and concept artist Christo, who died at home in New York on 31 May.

Christo and his wife Jeann-Claude were famous for wrapping up giant objects ­– famous buildings, landmarks and even entire landscapes. So right off the bat is our first Arty Fact: Both Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon were on the same day, 13 June 1935, but at opposite ends of the Mediterranean – he in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and she in Casablanca, Morocco. Jean-Claude died of a stroke on 18 November 2009, also in New York. Both used their first names and were among the most famous working artistic couples.

[caption id="attachment_207478" align="alignnone" width="1105"] Christo and Jeanne-Claude_Wolfgang Volz | Image: Wolfgang Volz[/caption]

“Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realising it,” a statement from his office read. “Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s artwork brought people together in shared experiences across the globe, and their work lives on in our hearts and memories.”

Christo was working on perhaps his most ambitious project ever, to wrap Paris’s Arc de Triomphe in 269,097 square feet of fabric. The couple first conceived the idea in 1962, and the project is still expected to be executed in September 2021 after being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[caption id="attachment_207479" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Floating Piers, 18 June to 3 July 2016, on Lake Iseo, Italy.[/caption]

The act of wrapping was only one facet of each project, which included the Reichstag in Berlin, the Pont Nuef bridge in Paris, a giant curtain across a canyon in Colorado, and their largest work, Surrounded Islands in Biscayne Bay Florida in 1988. The couple considered the bureaucratic wrangling required to realise such works —as well as related documentation including environmental impact reports, drawings, and diagrams— to also be a part of the works.

[caption id="attachment_207480" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The Reichstag, Berlin, 1994.[/caption]

According to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s official website, the couple wrapped the Berlin Reichstag building in 1995 after 24 years of lobbying officials across six Bundestag presidents: “The wrapping became symbolic of unified Germany and marked Berlin's return as a world city. Christo's Wrapped Objects explore the transformative effect fabric and tactile surfaces have when wrapped around familiar objects. The concealment caused by the fabric challenges the viewer to reappraise the objects beneath and the space in which it exists.”

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How the most famous image of surrealism was a collaboration between a great painter and a brilliant photographer.

“There was never any competition. Dali was an artist, a painter, and my father was a photographer. Dali never wanted to be a photographer, Philippe never wanted to pick up a paint brush but together they made the most outrageous pictures,” says Irene Halsman, daughter of the esteemed photographer Philippe Halsman, one of the most respected and prolific photographers on both sides of the Atlantic before and after the second world war. “They wanted to forge something new together Dali was always full of wild ideas so Philippe really had to use his imagination and creativity. Philippe would direct Dali and Dali was always happy to oblige. It was a true, true collaboration that lasted 37 years.”

Born in Latvia, Philippe Halsman moved to Paris in 1930 at when he was 24, where he quickly established his reputation as a photographer. When the Nazis invaded the city in 1940, Halsman obtained a rare emergency visa to the United States with the help of Albert Einstein, who knew Halsman’s sister. In New York Halsman joined Life magazine when the publication was just six years old. Halsman shot 101 covers for Life – more than any other photographer – until the magazine ceased weekly publication in 1972. Halsman joined the famed Magnum Photos collective in 1951, becoming a contributing member in 1956.

Halsman most famous photographs were probably with the doyen of surrealism doyen Salvador Dalí, whom he met in 1941 and enjoyed a 37-year collaboration. The most famous of these was the iconic image Dali Atomicus, which was planned and executed at  Halsman’s apartment and studio in New York in 1948. In the accompanying 5-minute video, Halsman’s daughter Irene describes the near magic of producing an image, that had to be taken in one shot but required 26 takes, involving levitating furniture, bending columns of water and flying cats:

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To find out the story of one of the world’s most iconic paintings, and how it keeps yielding its secrets, you should visit a small museum in the Dutch city of the Hague.

The compact Mauritshuis (Maurice House) is dedicated to artists of the Dutch Golden Age, from roughly 1580 to 1670, when this small nation facing the North Sea was a major maritime power on the top of its game in trade, science, military and art.

The collection covers most of the masters of the era, notably Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer. Rembrandt, who died at about age 60 in 1669, mastered not just painting but drawing and printmaking. In contrast, Vermeer left only 34 known paintings, of which three are in the Mauritshuis – including the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Vermeer spent his entire but relatively short life, from about 1632 to 1675, in the Delft in the western Netherlands. In this, leafy canal city famed for its tapestries, porcelain and breweries, the artist painted scenes of middle class life. Not only did he not venture far from Delft, he produced all of his paintings in two rooms of his house. Only three paintings were of outside scenes, including the much acclaimed landscape, A view of Delft.  The fact that Vermeer had at least 10 children, that he spent many months completing each painting and preferred to paint with expensive pigments, meant that he died in debt – all of this the midst of the six-year Franco Dutch War.

Following his death Vermeer remained largely forgotten in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Many of his works were included in important collections and fetched high prices, but were often attributed to other artists, a state of affairs that did not change until about 1850, when Vermeer was rediscovered by the German museum director Gustav Waagen and the French journalist and critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger.

Girl with a Pearl Earring remained unknown until 1881, when it appeared at an auction in The Hague. The art collector Arnoldus Andries des Tombe bought the neglected painting for a mere two guilders, plus the buyer’s premium of 30 cents. Des Tombe died in 1902, and with no heirs,  bequeathed 12 paintings to the Mauritshuis, including Girl with a Pearl Earring.

To this day, the painting continues to raise questions among art lovers and historians. New research discovered that Vermeer made changes to the composition as he painted: the position of the ear, the top of the headscarf and the back of the neck were shifted.

“The research identified and accurately mapped Vermeer’s colour palette in this painting for the first time,” says Abbie Vandivere, Head of The Girl in the Spotlight project and conservator at the Mauritshuis, on the museum’s website.

“The raw materials for the colours came from all over the world: regions that today belong to Mexico and Central America, England and possibly Asia or the West Indies. Vermeer’s liberal use of high-quality ultramarine in the headscarf and the jacket is striking.

“Made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli that came from what is now Afghanistan, the preparation of natural ultramarine was time-consuming and laborious. In the 17th century, the pigment was more precious than gold. One discovery from the recent project is that the stone may have first been heated at a high temperature, which made it easier to grind and produced a more intense blue colour.”

At the time Vermeer painted, the Dutch were a major maritime trading nation, and such pigments would have been available in Delft, although lapis lazuli – of which he used a fair amount to paint the girl’s turban –  would have been extremely expensive.

Technically Girl with a Pearl Earring is not a portrait, but a type of study referred to in Vermeer’s day as a tronie. They depict a certain type of character, not a specific person, often caught in a candid moment. In this case the girl is wearing an oriental turban and an enormous pearl in her ear.

The Girl with a Pearl Earring was title of a 1999 novel by Tracey Chevalier and was adapted to film in 2003, starring Scarlett Johansson as Griet, a young servant in the household of Vermeer, played by Colin Firth. It received generally favourable reviews and grossed US$31.4 million worldwide. It was nominated for 10 British Academy Film Awards, three Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

One mystery that still remains, perhaps forever, is the identity of the girl – or if indeed she ever existed. But such is its fame that staff at the Mauritshuis refer to the painting as “she”. The museum has been closed during the coronavirus crisis, but plans to reopen on June 1.

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When the reform-minded government of Gough Whitlam came to power in Australia in 1972 after 23 years of conservative rule, it embarked on an agenda of polices that ranged from the high-minded ­­– recognising the People’s Republic of China, returning indigenous lands, abolishing the death penalty and axing university fees ­– to more prosaic but urgent matters like connecting the sprawling outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne to a modern sewerage system. Cultural investment was also given prominence, with Queen Elizabeth opening Sydney’s iconic Opera House in October 1973 following two decades of construction – a rancorous project that saw Danish architect Jørn Utzen head home to Denmark, never to return, while cost overruns hit tens of millions of dollars. That fateful year also saw the start of the Gulf State oil embargo and the mid-70s recession. So when it emerged that the also new National Gallery of Australia in Canberra had paid AU$1.3m (HK$6.5m) for a painting by an American artist, Jackson Pollock’s 1952 work Blue Poles, which looked someone had laid the canvas on the floor and poured, dribbled and flecked house paint all over it, the public and popular media reacted as if they’d just learned that someone had strangled the Queen’s corgies. (After forking out for Blue Poles, the NGA acquired another work, Woman V, by the Dutch-born US painter Willem de Kooning, for a more modest US$650,000. Both painters were colleagues from the so-called New York School of Abstract Expressionism that formed after the second world war).
Fast forward to the present, where times, and attitudes, have of course changed. In a short video at the NGA’s website, Christine Dixon, senior curator of international painting and sculpture, describes why the painting today is the gallery’s most popular exhibit, starting with its sheer size: “People forget that when they see reproductions of works of art, everything looks flat. But when you come to this beautiful work, you’ll see that it’s nearly two metres high and more than five metres long.”

[caption id="attachment_206825" align="alignnone" width="1762"] Blue Poles Jackson Pollock[/caption]

And, yes, Pollock did paint on the floor – his paintings were just too damn big to lean on the wall ­­– where he “used any implement he liked to pour and dribble and fling paint to the canvas”. And yet, Dixon adds, “he could draw so subtly with such intricate ideas about the lattice work and three dimensionality of the painting. The more closely you look at the work, the more deep it becomes. If you move away it becomes a surface again.”
And therein lies one of the most intriguing features of Blue Poles (and Pollock’s other works from that period): that, according to some mathematicians, the painting is composed almost entirely ­of fractals, something Pollock was probably not even vaguely aware of. Fractals are patterns formed by congregations of exactly, or very similar, patterns. For example, imagine an equilateral triangle that itself is comprised of four smaller triangles with exactly the same pattern. Or take the original one and stack three more the same size to get a new triangle that is four times that size. Fractal patterns are ubiquitous in nature in shapes as diverse as snowflakes or biological structures ­­­– indeed they are the patterns of life. Look closely at a snail shell or the veining of leaves. They are also found in art, especially in East Asian imagery of water and clouds: think Hokusai’s famous woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and notice how the shapes of the giant waves and the breaking foam at their tops are fractals of each other.

Meanwhile, it’s been nearly five decades since the NGA paid what was then a world record for a work by an American painter. Was it taken for a ride, or did they get a bargain? In September 2016, the Australian Financial Review reported that the painting had an insurance valuation of about US$350 million (HK$2.71 billion), some 300 times the 1973 price tag ­– a frenzy of fractals at a fraction of the price.

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