Background
Yen Li-pen's father, Yen P'i, was a court painter and official under the Northern Chou and Sui dynasties; and his older brother, Yen Li-te, was also a painter who rose to the position of minister of the Board of Works.
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Yen Li-pen
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Yen Li-pen succeeded his father in this post in 656, and in 668 he became one of two ministers of state. Despite his high offices in government, he was regarded primarily as a painter and summoned to perform at the Emperor's whim. I
In consequence, Yen Li-pen is said to have discouraged his son from becoming a painter.
His greatest predecessor, Ku K'aichih, had developed a style featuring a fine brush line "like silken thread, " that was well suited to an intimate, humanistic expression.
Yen Li-pen's brushwork is described as "iron-wire line, " a thin, hard, even lineament used with heavy shading and bold color, which is better suited to a powerful, monumental art.
The overriding impression, however, is one of majesty and remote dignity, quite different from the gentler, more personal art of Ku K'ai-chih.
A similar work in Peking, representing Emperor T'ai-tsung receiving a foreign ambassador, reinforces this image, though it is a somewhat later copy.
Several of Yen Li-pen's portraits of meritorious officials, painted at imperial command in 643, have been preserved as rubbings made from engravings on stone cut in 1090.
A quite different style is seen in a lovely handscroll also in Boston.
As in the works mentioned above, the figures are placed against a plain background, without setting, and the brushwork is fine and even.
However, the color is pale and transparent, there is relatively little shading, and each figure is individually conceived in the most sensitive manner.
The interaction between members of the group is also striking.
If the work is truly related to Yen Li-pen, then it reveals a more penetrating and personal master than his other works suggest.
After his death in 673, Yen Li-pen was honored by the Emperor with the posthumous title Wen-chen (Cultured and True).
Further Reading There is no monograph on Yen Li-pen.
The best source in English is Oswald Siren, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles (7 vols. , 1956 - 1958).
