Among extant early masterpieces of Chinese figure painting, few have received as much scholarly attention and public adoration as has been lavished on The Night Banquet of Han Xizai, a handscroll attributed to the Southern Tang artist Gu Hongzhong (fl. mid–tenth century), in the Palace Museum, Beijing. In radiant colors and exquisite brushwork, the painting portrays the life of Han Xizai (902–70), a Southern Tang official whose nightly banquets with wine, women, and entertainment led Emperor Li Yu (r. 961–75) to spy on Han. According to historical accounts, the emperor ordered Gu Hongzhong to record these escapades in paint. The Night Banquet is featured in countless surveys of Chinese art, dissertations, and other in-depth studies reconstructing developments in Chinese figure painting.
De-nin Lee's new, path-breaking “cultural biography” invites scholars to reconsider this celebrated work in a new light: as a co-creation of the artist and later collectors whose textual additions...
