YI LONG: A FINE ‘EPANG PALACE’ SCROLL PAINTING

拍品描述

YI LONG: A FINE ‘EPANG PALACE’ SCROLL PAINTING China, 20th century. Ink, watercolor, and gold on silk. Mounted as a hanging scroll on a silk frame with wooden handles. Finely executed to depict an imposing view of the vast Epang Palace across multiple levels, framed by wind-swept willows and other lush trees, accompanied by a lengthy poetic inscription in the upper section of the composition. The reverse bearing an inscription on an affixed label. Inscriptions: To the upper left corner, apang gong zhi tu, ji wei gu dan yi long hua bing shu [drawing of the Epang Palace, executed on an auspicious day in Jiwei (year of the Earth Sheep), painted and inscribed by Yi Long]. Dimensions: Image size 111 x 44.6 cm; size incl. mounting 174.5 x 67 cm The Epang Palace was a vast imperial complex constructed during the Qin Dynasty in the third century BC under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first unifier of China, near present-day Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. Conceived as both a residence and an administrative center, the palace was intended to cover an extraordinary area of approximately 1.5 kilometers in length by 0.75 kilometers in width, though it was never fully completed. Following the fall of the Qin Dynasty in 207 BC, the palace was sacked and destroyed, leaving behind a legacy as a symbol of the emperor’s absolute power and monumental ambition, preserved today through historical texts and archaeological findings.

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