Kesi Figure with Patten of Camellia and Jia Butterfly

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This is a rare masterpiece of the Southern Song Dynasty. It not only reproduces sketch effect of the original painting, but also incisively demonstrates unique technical characteristics of Kesi process. Based on magnetic green silk, the craftswoman used the color lines to weave a beautiful pattern and describe the scenarios of animals and plants living interdependently in the Nature: Buds and leaves stand on the same branches, butterflfl y dances with red flfl ower. Leaves sway gently in the breeze, and each leaf sees both coarse and fifi ne veins. What a bright spring with great vitality! This artwork features compact and plump surface with symmetry of silk thread. This picture presents changeful colors, layered coordination and strong three-dimensional sense.

In this picture, camellia radiates great fragrance and attracts a bright yellow dancing butterfly to fly. Zhu Kerou not only set off flower with flower, but also set off the butterfly with flower. She just drew a butterfly, but people seem to see millions of butterfly flying forward. People cannot help thinking of this poem: “countless flowers press branches down” and “butterflfl ies linger and dance from time to time”.

Zhu Kerou (1119-1160)

Zhu Kerou was a famous female Kesi craftswoman in the Southern Song Dynasty, who was a native of Yunjian, Songjiang (today’s Songjiang County, Shanghai). She was good at integrating brushwork into Kesi with vivid natural techniques. Her artworks feature compact and plump surface, even and shining silk thread, changeful colors and layered composition. The fifi gures of birds, flfl owers, trees and rocks show vivid charms, which are very ingenious. At that time, people regarded Zhu Kerou’s kesi artworks as famous paintings, even the emperors also sent eunuchs to search for her artworks in the south region of the Yangtze River. In addition to Figure of Camellia , Zhu Kerou’s two kesi artworks are handed down up to now, i.e., Figure of Peony and Figure with Pattern of Duck in Lotus Pond .

Kesi

Kesi is also known as “carved silk”, which is a kind of the traditional Chinese silk handicraft. The colorful wefts show pattern, form pattern borders, show double-sided effect and present three-dimensional feelings. As this technology can freely change the colors, it is particularly suitable for production of imitated calligraphy and painting artworks. In the course of Ke weaving, weaver should install chaine at the loom, and warp drawings or the manuscripts under chaine. Through longitude silk, weaver should depict paint color pattern of drawing sample on the chaine silk surface, and then use boat-shaped bobbin (about 10 cm long) equipped with a variety of silk threads to weave all segments according to patterns.

Kesi process of the Southern Song Dynasty

Kesi derived from the early Tang Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Suzhou and Songjiang emerged as the hub of Kesi production, where kesi technology reached the highest level in history, and famous craftsmen sprang up like mushrooms. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the artworks of Kesi artists mostly imitated painting and calligraphy artworks of the Tang and Song Dynasties. They could take advantage of delicate technique to make painting effect that brocade, embroidering, printing and other crafts were unable to express. Such artworks could mix the spurious artworks with the genuine artworks, and unique three-dimensional sense can overshadow the originals.