Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)

FERENCZY Mária: A modernizáció megjelenése a századeleji kínai ábrázolásokon

there are a vase and two flower-stands on frames with flowers (perhaps peonies), as well as stones, leaves, branches of coral etc. To the left in the foreground is a square flower-stand on a square stone-slab with nicely shaped stones and branches of coral. To the right of the youth raising the sundisk and in two places in the background big sycees are heaped up in columns, with a flaming pearl at the top of each column. On the floor small sycees, branches of coral, coins, banana leaves and other lucky objects lie around scattered. Explanation: With this picture a rise in wealth and social standing is wished to the family (or to the sons), manifesting the wish (a set phrase commonly used) expressed in the title in the form of a family ritual or ritual dance. It is interesting to note that no old ritual is known that could have been the model of the ritual represented in the picture.

37 The majority of the details are traditional: wealth, prosperity and long life is promised by the sycees, the branches of coral lying around, the flaming pearls, the banana leaves, the magic mushroom, the lucky knot (of the "eight treasures"), the peony, many offspring by the lotus etc. The persons' appearance is not entirely traditional already: in contrast to the robe and the hairstyle of the ladies, the attire of the men is partly European. (The drawing of the window, in contrast to the table and the canopy follows the pattern of European linear perspective.) It is to be noted that, although the commonly known set phrase is endowed with traditional magic power in the picture, the rise of the family is not represented entirely in a traditional manner: besides the men dressed partly in European wear and the boys visiting a modern school, we see on the left side of the picture (the place to which the youth raising the sun-disk is looking) a male relation (or master, or simply a paragon) standing in modern, European clothes carrying a medical bag — a practitioner of a modem profession.

38 The lack of a definite structure in the composition suggests that there were no age-old traditional patterns at hand for the artist to use when drawing this picture. Parallel cases: to me unknown.

39 9. MAGIC PICTURE PROMISING PROSPERITY AND A LARGE FAMILY Inventory no.: 89.39.1 Size: 60 x 108 cm Title: Children Making Merry among Lotus Flowers (Han-tan hua shen erh-t'ung lo-ch 'U) Signature: Po-yi-lin / chu jen hsieh kao (Po-yi-lin Work-shop [=Forest of All the Arts and Crafts]. Designed by the owner) Technique: lithograph (printed with two plates); hand-coloured with light yellow, orange, light brown, pink, heliotrope, lilac, blue, light green, greenish blue, white colours and Chinese ink (the colours are low-key; the details of faces are painted with fine brush-strokes on white, as in other pictures). Condition: the thin, greyish paper is crumpled, rims and the middle at the folding are broken and frazzled; the paint on the ladies' faces has turned brownish. Subject: On the right side of the picture a lady stands by the side of water. She is clothed in a flowery coat and trousers, with a hairknot, with small, pointed slippers on her bound feet, and with a fan in her left hand.

40 Her companion (maid) is clothed more plainly and has larger feet. She also holds a fan in her left hand, in the right a lotus-flower in full bloom is to be seen. In the middle two young willow trees grow out from an old, hollow stump; their foliage reaches the upper edge of the picture. On the left, lotus leaves and flowers float on