历代帝王图

Yan Liben served the early Tang court not only as its finest figure painter but eventually as a chief minister of the empire. This long silk handscroll lines up 13 rulers from the centuries before the Tang, from the Han dynasty down to the Sui that the Tang had just replaced. It was meant to be read as a lesson. The able founders stand tall and dignified, larger than the men attending them, while the emperors who lost their thrones look shrunken, dispirited, or sour. For a young dynasty still proving it deserved the throne, these were portraits of exactly what to do and what to avoid. The scroll made its way to Boston in the 1930s.