Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 23. (Budapest, 2004)
Mária FERENCZY: Door Gods. Art and Craftsmanship in the various styles of Chinese New Year Pictures
motifs were placed in such a way that they form a contrast with the characters of the faces, thereby intensifying and also balancing the duality represented by the figures. 36 The neck and the head of the maces were richly decorated, occasionally to such extent that the observer almost fails to recognise them as weapons. Sometimes floral patterns were used, sometimes characters; maybe this is why some considered them to be lamps (for example. Unterrieder, 1984, pp. 72-76; Goodrich, A. 1991, p. 43) 37 In more remotely associated pictures, in the place of the swords we can see double swords, iron lashes and longhandled swords. 18 They are as follows: health, prosperity, equanimity, virtue and natural, timely death. 59 Here I do not deal with those pictures where the represented god is accompanied by a number of other figures. This is none too rare; however, in these cases the god's figure merges with the figures of other gods, for instance, the god of wealth (Caishen). 411 Reproduction, Mianzhu, 1990, Nos. 67-68. 41 A mythical animal, the king of the four-legged creatures. It has a dragon's head, a scaly, fish-like body, a tiger's tail and bull's legs. It sends male offspring and its appearance in the world marks the birth of a great sage. JJ Qilin song zi, Zhuangyuan di ji. It is to be noted that the two parts of the inscription are not arranged in the usual order. On the basis of the usual reading direction, one would assume the first part to be written on the right-hand side flag; however, it is the second part we can read there. 41 Reproduction, Mianzhu, 1990, Nos. 37-38. 44 Most probably, there are puns related to their naines; however, I have not been able to trace them so far. 45 The well-known artist was bom in 1916. He studied in Hangzhou and from 1938 on participated in the Resistance against Japanese occupation in Yan'an and Taihangshan. His work published here is associated with this period. 46 Reproduction. Published: Meishu congkan, Shanghai. 1979, No. 6, p. 79. Cited by: Unterrieder, 1984, p. 28. 47 Jun min he zuo, kang zhan sheng li. 41 Reproduction. A piece of Wang Suchun's collection, published: Mianzhu, 1990, Nos. 163-164. Its Chinese title: "Flying dragon and dancing phoenix" (Long fei , feng wu). 4 " According to the editors (Mianzhu, 1990, pp. 14, 40), the clouds of five colours accentuate the continuous realization of the blessing conveyed by the picture. 50 The same principle is expressed more immediately by the picture Chen-Chen-Zhu, 1951, No. 29, being the only picture in the volume whose design is connected to the tradition: in the pictures there are a worker and a peasant, both leading a horse (!) loaded up with products and farm products of vital importance. Its inscription formulates the principle accurately: "Town and country help one another, exchanging products and farm produces" (cheng xiang hu zhu, wu huo jiao liu). One can observe that the worker is wearing summer clothes, and the peasant winter clothes that is, the picture marks that the programme formulated by the image and the inscription is meant for the whole yearjust as earlier pictures promised good fortune for the whole year.
