Different kinds of paper were used to make folding fans, including gold-painted paper, gold-flecked paper, plain paper, and colored paper. The supporting ribs could be made from bamboo, wood, ivory, or lacquer as well. Despite the small size of folding fans, professional artists adapted their skills to make marvelous works combining different kinds of ribs and paper bearing both plain and ornate beauty. Such late Ming professional painters as Ding Yunpeng (1547-after 1628), Wu Bin (fl. ca. 1573-1620), and Chen Hongshou (1599-1652) fused this format with their personal forms of expression, creating folding fans of consummate skill.
Illustration and Transcription of the Latter Ode on the Red Cliff
- Ding Yunpeng (1547-after 1628) and Jiang Zhenji, Ming dynasty
- Folding fan, ink on paper, 22 x 58.6 cm
This folding fan is the same size as "Illustration and Transcription of the Former Ode on the Red Cliff," the handle and ribs of both also made from mottled bamboo. The fan here is on the "Latter Ode on the Red Cliff," indicating that the two were likely to have been designed as an exquisite pair or appeared on either side of a fan later remounted by the Qing court as a pair.
This painting shows Su Shi once again bringing wine on a trip to the Red Cliff. In "Latter Ode on the Red Cliff," however, Su describes how he lifts his robes to climb up the rocks and cry out to the vast expanse below, later returning to his boat and letting it drift on the water, a solitary crane flying from the east over the water in the middle of the night. The original text has a chronological order, but Ding Yunpeng here adapted the contents to the arched surface of the folding fan by combining the two scenes into one, demonstrating his considerable skills while reflecting the familiarity among viewers at the time with the subject of the Red Cliff.
