The Skeleton Fantasy by Li Song of the Southern Song Dynasty is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing

Let's take a look at the content of this painting: a traveling muppet (puppet) artist, sitting on the ground, manipulating a small skeleton with a sling。

Next to the skeleton is a burden, on which are placed straw MATS, umbrellas and other daily items, which seem to be all the belongings of the street entertainer wandering away。

Behind the skeleton was a woman nursing a baby, his wife。

On the right, the child is attracted to the small skeleton, and the woman behind the child holds out her hand, fearing that the child is in any possible danger。

Li Song (1166-1243) was a native of Qiantang (now Hangzhou) in the Southern Song Dynasty。Born poor, he used to work as a carpenter when he was young。Good painting, quite far away。He was adopted by the court painter Li Congxun, who gave him painting skills and eventually became a famous artist。The painting Academy of Guangzong, Ningzong and Lizong of Song Dynasty (1190-1264) was called "the old painter of the Three Dynasties".。

He is good at drawing figures, Buddha and Taoist images, especially boundary paintings。The meaning of the painting remains a mystery。In the picture, a large skeleton, a small skeleton, is luring a child。The picture is strange and strange, the line is rigorous and rich in changes, and the color is simple and simple, which has the characteristics of the courtyard painting of the Song Dynasty。

Skeleton fantasy.提诗

No skin, no meat.There is a burden of bitterness and sorrow。Puppet son will also draw the silk thread, looking for a small look to amuse the enemy。There's no shame in seeing it through？Awkward since the Wuli has been single。

Huang Gongwang thinks that this is the portrayal of the puppet artists with families and mouths in the Southern Song Dynasty at that time, who are running around to earn a living. In other words, Huang Gongwang does not feel that there is no difference with other ordinary market paintings, but there is a skeleton in the painting。

The weirdness of the whole painting is rooted in the fact that the small skeleton is not manipulated by a street artist, but by a large skeleton。

Some people say that the big skeleton died for some reason, but out of the care of the family and children, it returned to the home in the form of a ghost, for the wandering artist。

The so-called day is the mattress, the ground is the seat, wandering is actually the fate of life, so the mattress, carrying, fishing gear, it can be seen that for artists, here is both a market and a home。

Li Song's depiction of the human skeleton is extremely skilful and accurate, and she punishes those who look down on ancient paintings and think that ancient paintings are not realistic。Who said that our traditional painting is not as realistic as the West? The West began to study the human body in the Renaissance, while we began to study the human body structure in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the anatomical cognition level is more than 200 years earlier than the West。