Quick Answer: What Do the Writing and Seals Mean?
The writing and red stamps on a Chinese painting may come from the painter, a recipient or a later collector. Their position and wording can help separate the making of the image from its later history. [1][3][5]
- An artist inscription (题款, tíkuǎn): The painter may sign, date, dedicate or comment on the work in brush writing. [1][3][4]
- A seal (印章, yìnzhāng): The carved stamp leaves an impression, often red, that can identify a painter, studio or collector. [2][5]
- A colophon (题跋, tíbá): An added text can record a response, interpretation or attribution. It may sit on a border, an attached sheet or the painted surface. [1][5]
Ask who made the mark, where it sits and what date it gives. One painting can carry marks from very different centuries. [3][5]
A red square beside a mountain might name the painter. Another red square near it might belong to someone who owned the painting centuries later. The same distinction applies to brush writing. Treat each mark as a separate piece of evidence, and a crowded surface becomes easier to read.
Artist Inscriptions: Name, Date and Intention
An inscription can do more than identify a painter. In Sheep and Goat, Zhao Mengfu explains that he had painted horses before and wanted to try these subjects. The writing adds a record of the painter’s interest to an image of two animals. You can also compare the space the writing takes up with the space given to the bodies. That interplay is one reason Chinese calligraphy matters to looking at paintings. [1][4]
On Early Spring, a small line above the valley gives the title, a cyclical year corresponding to 1072 and Guo Xi’s name. The nearby seal identifies Guo’s brush. The same surface also carries a poem written by the Qianlong emperor in 1759. On a reproduction the two blocks of writing may seem close in space, even though nearly seven centuries separate them. See the painted landscape in the comparison of Fan Kuan and Guo Xi. [3]
How to Read the Red Seals
Some seal impressions show red characters on a pale field. Others leave the characters pale against red. When the letters project from the carved surface, those raised parts pick up paste and print red. When letters are incised, the surface around the cuts prints red instead. A name can also look unfamiliar because it is written in seal script (篆书, zhuànshū). [2]
The color of the letters tells you how the stamp was cut. To identify its role, look at what the seal reads. It might contain a personal name, a studio name or a phrase. In the documentation for Sheep and Goat, two impressions are assigned to the artist and fifty-one to collectors. They belong to different stages of the scroll’s history, even when the marks look similar at first glance. [2][5]
Colophons, Mounts and Later Viewers
A handscroll may begin with a title panel or frontispiece and continue after the image into additional paper. On Sheep and Goat, the frontispiece is associated with the Qianlong emperor, the artist wrote on the picture, and an early Ming colophon follows on a separate piece of paper. Knowing the parts of Chinese scroll formats helps you distinguish the painted field from attached sections. [1][5]
Placement can also help researchers interpret an attribution. On two companion scrolls, seals with Cheng Qi’s courtesy name and sobriquet cross the join between the painting and the first attached colophon. Written colophons independently identify his role in making the images and writing the texts that accompany them. The interpretation rests on the marks and the statements together. [6]
Compare the Marks on Two Paintings
| 絵画 | Artist’s mark | Later marks to distinguish |
|---|---|---|
| 早春 | Guo Xi’s date of 1072 and a seal naming his brush. [3] | A poem dated 1759 and associated imperial impressions add a much later reading of the landscape. [3] |
| Sheep and Goat | Zhao Mengfu’s inscription about trying the subject and his seals. [4][5] | At the front is an imperial title panel. A Ming colophon follows the image, and collectors’ seals appear in several places. [5] |
FAQs About Chinese Painting Inscriptions and Seals
Did the Painter Make Every Red Mark?
A painting can carry both artist and collector impressions. Look up the reading and placement of each mark before assigning it to the person who made the image. [2][5]
Is a Red Seal Proof That a Painting Is Authentic?
A seal is one clue. Its reading and placement carry more weight when other parts of the object, including dated writing, materials and attached commentary, tell a compatible story. [3][5][6]
Is a Colophon Always at the End of a Scroll?
A handscroll can carry later comments on paper added after the painting. Written responses may also appear on borders, album leaves or the painting itself. [1][5]
出典
[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 中国絵画
[2] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting
[3] National Palace Museum. 早春
[4] Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Sheep and Goat
[5] Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Sheep and Goat: Documentation
[6] スミソニアン国立アジア美術館。 Cheng Qi Scroll Documentation