ARTISTIC RETREAT
When Kublai Khan conquered China’s Song Dynasty, many loyalists
withdrew from public life to focus on art. One of them was Qian Xuan,
whose works mix the realism of the Song period with subjects from the
Tang dynasty (618-907), considered a golden age of Chinese art. In this
painting Minghuang (an eighth-century emperor) observes from his horse
as servants help concubine Yang Guifei mount hers. Freer Gallery of Art,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
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