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Zeng Qi: Pictures of Auspicious Responses
in Eight Sections (1414)
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Taken from: Kathlyn Liscomb in Art History 2002
Zeng Qi interprets the white elephant (gift from Anam) and the qi-lin as auspicious animals demonstrating the extensive reach of the Youngle emperors human rule. Zeng claims that a qi-lin did not appear since the western Han dynasty. Crowds of people thronging to witness the qilin that is shown in a complex twisted pose as it turns its neck to look backwards. Its hooves are firmly planted on the ground except for one foreleg which is raised gracefully. The three man are marked as foreigners by their attire, protruding noses, dark complexions and the dense beards of two of them. Modulated tone of beige with reddish tints enhance the illusion of solidity of the faces, contributing to the impression that the artist was a foreign as his subjects, since this was not common in contemporary chinese painting. The painting of the giraffe is plate 9 of this hang scroll.