Episode 134 - Puppet Play of a Skeleton

I visited the Hong Kong Museum of Art today for Phase II of the "Pride of China" Exhibition.

Phase I of the Exhibition ended on 22nd July. It exhibited the original of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" plus 15 great paintings and calligraphy.

Phase II also features a "Qingming River" painting, but this one is an imitation of the original Song painting, which imitation is attributed to Qiu Ying. The Museum also exhibits another 15 paintings and calligraphy.

Whilst the Ming Dynasty version "Qingming River" is also a masterpiece in itself, my heart turns to the other 15 paintings and calligraphy this time. They are housed in another exhibition hall in the Museum. Unlike the "Qingming River", there is no visiting time limit for these 15 artwork.

I believe many visitors were interested in the "Puppet Play of a Skeleton" (see above) by Li Song. It is a strange painting with a skeleton man performing a play of a skeleton puppet!. Many commentators tended to look at this painting from a philosophical perspective of "Life and Death". I do not find this approach attractive. I would rather view the plot of this artwork as a magic performance. The painter, like the girl on the right side, was probably doubting whether the magician (the skeleton man) was in fact a demon, while watching the performance.

Apart from the "Skeleton", I also like the paintings "Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy" and "Vimalakirti Preaching the Doctrine" - I saw photos of these 2 paintings many times in the past. It's great to be able to have a close encounter with the originals of them. As to calligraphy, I was touched by the strokes of Wang Xun and Zhao Mengfu.