Study About The “ Fighting Mynah Birds” Versions

It has always been inconclusive whether the Fighting Mynah Birds copy is attributed to Hui Tsung.Though there are abundant pertinent hearsay,I think those cannot be easily trusted.The objective of this thesis is,therefore,to sort out the transfer of this painting over time and punctuate the timeline appropriately.While abundant researches exist on Hui Tsung's painting style and they are helpful to this thesis study,it is not sufficient.As a result,I devoted part of the thesis to comb through Hui Tsung's artistic style.Three versions of “ Fighting Mynah Birds” exist in different parts of the world.The skeleton of these three copies are fairly similar that makes it hard to recognize which copy is original and which copy after.Though it is well understood Emperor Qianlong and Laichen Pang are the two main collectors of this Chinese painting,the in-between transfers is complicated and nebulous.How this painting got into the Forbidden city of the Qing dynasty and when a copy was made are the two main focal points of this research.Laichen Pang,as the last collector of the Fighting Mynah Birds,is also the main “suspect” of making copies of this highly coveted painting.The transaction between Pang and American Collector Freer plays an important role in the exportation of ancient Chinese paintings.Amid those transactions,we might be able to find key clues to the fortification of the Fighting Mynah Birds.These transactions not only reveal details of the transfer of the painting “Fighting Mynah Birds” but also reflects the exportation details of many ancient Chinese classical art work during the turbulent years at the turn of the 20 th century.The Japanese culture has long been influenced by the Chinese.From Japanese flower-bird painting in the Jiang Hu period,one can see the impact of Fighting Mynah Birds left on the Japanese Southern painting.After turning to Europe away from Asian,the skeleton of Japanese' painting becomes even more accurate and vivid.This style has influenced the contemporary Chinese painting.This interesting change is clearly evident in the alternation of how the Fighting Mynah Birds was copied/fortified over time.