Forgács Éva (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 9. (Budapest, 1989)

MIKLÓS Pál: A Hopp Ferenc Keletázsiai Művészeti Múzeum új szerzeménye

movement, are however manifest and effective in this — probably provincial — painting, as well. The landscape background is schematic, without doubt, but the horses and camels, and the persons are presented with a very suggestive live force, so that the whole of the scene, enormous in size, is a life-like and rhythmically masterful composition. Especially because of its life-likeness, the picture is extremely interesting, not only as a pictorial composition of men on the move, but as a document of the cultural anthropology, i. e. as a representation of a real hunting party from 17th century China. (Fig. 66 a/f.). In this preliminary account of the gift by Edmund de Unger, this Hunting party scroll, dated provisionally as originating in 17th century China, I can only state the main problems. As John A. Pope argued in a famous article („Sinology or Art History") forty years ago: ,,In the present state of our studies we should begin to realise how little we really know; and the eye alone can add little if anything to the picture. Future progress will depend in great measure on how much we can find out about the circumstances under which the objects were made and on the answers to such questions as 'why?', 'how?' 'when?' and 'where?' If the answers exist at all, they are to be found in the writings of the men who made and used the bronzes, paintings . . " etc

2 * * * At first, let me list the figures, identifiable on the picture. The scene shows 71 men, arranged as a long walking and riding party. 42 men walk and 29 are mounted (13 are mounted on horses, 16 are mounted on camels). They proceed from left to right, but the larger half are represented with faces turned back •— so, if we unroll the party is coming towards us, but continually indicating the followers. (The Chinese manner is to unroll a scroll from the right, and look at it in sections). There are domesticated animals 13 horses, 19 camels — 3 camels are carrying loads — 4 dogs and 2 captured stags led on halters), furthermore 3 game (one of them is a hare that has just been killed by a lance, the two others are wolves in flight), 3 hunting falcons on the wrist of the hunters, and, finally, many bagged animals (tigers, hares, pheasants — carried on poles). There are a number of shot guns (18 are identifiable) and bows and arrows (7 bows are carried, the eighth is being used by a mounted hunter; the arrows are on the back Of the hunters). The scene is arranged in a landscape: the lower (and larger) part is a riverbank, where the party is proceeding, the country on the other bank of the river is hilly, in the upper strip there are, 8 mounted hunters (and another 3 wild beasts). There are firtrees on both riverbanks (proportioned in the manner of western perspective) ; a small bridge at the centre of the picture indicates that we are in civilised country — at the left of the painting there are three tiled roofs between the hills. The picture gives an impression of winter — although there is no snow anywhere. (The white contours on the hills — seen very sharply on the black and white reproduction — are only for plastic modelling, as far as I can tell). The question is how the people on the picture can be identified ethnically and chronologically. The faces cannot help us because of the sketchy representation and because of the absence of differences between the peoples supposed to be present