The scroll unfolded, bringing with it a burst of floral fragrance.
When Gu Weijing received the express delivery, in addition to the Chinese painting scroll, the sponge-filled safe box also contained a small piece of black wood the size of a thumbnail.
There is a saying in the collecting world that paper lasts a thousand years and silk lasts eight hundred.
It means that paper collections can be passed down for thousands of years, but paintings made of silk, brocade and silk will decay after being passed down for eight hundred years.
Traditional Chinese painting rice paper has only two natural enemies: one is afraid of tide, and the other is afraid of insects.
In their calligraphy and painting shop, there are a total of three treasures passed down from their ancestors.
They are jade, gold and wood respectively.
Jade is the set of bamboo pens as clear as jade and the jade seals, which Grandpa has given to him.
The gold is the few small yellow croakers that helped their family go through many turmoils and the whole family did not starve to death during the most difficult time. They have all been spent in Gu Tongxiang’s hands. Gu Weijing only heard that after giving birth, Never seen it.
The last piece of wood is a wooden box made of three small leaves.
Camphor wood can be used as medicine. It has the effects of warding off wind and cold, strengthening the heart and relieving spasms. It is also naturally capable of repelling insects and moths, and prevents insects and ants from invading. In the meantime, it is also used in the deep mountains of Badong, Hubei and Anhui regions. The small-leaf camphor grown there is the most valuable.
It is said that it can isolate water and moisture, and preserve precious paintings and calligraphy for hundreds of years as if they were new.
Boxes made of small-leaf camphor are indispensable treasures in the houses of elegant nobles and big collectors. They are no cheaper than huanghuali and small-leaf red sandalwood.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, among the things passed down from ancestors, the most valuable thing at that time was not the dozens of golden yellow croakers, but the three old and heavy, thick carved boxes.
On the contrary, in modern times, the price of Cinnamomum camphora has not been skyrocketed. The tree species are now available for all ages. It is easy to mine and the price has also gone down.
No matter how bad it is, you can buy 100 camphor sanitary balls for ten dollars on an online shopping platform, and you will get a free bag of camphor sanitary balls if you buy two bags, which will have the same effect.
Those three big boxes just became a memory of our ancestors.
I heard from the elders that at that time, his wife and grandfather heard from colleagues that the ghost place in Southeast Asia was hot and humid, and there were many peach blossom miasma and diseases. Before leaving Beijing, they made an emergency move to their home in Dashilar. I got these three treasure boxes from a two-entry courtyard in Baishun Hutong on the west side.
Every time his grandfather Gu Tongxiang looked at the three dark boxes under the bed, thought about their ancestral house at the root of the old capital city, and calculated the house price, he felt like he was going to lose money. It's over.
Although the memories left by the Gu family on the wooden box are not very pleasant.
However, Gu Weijing and his cousin Gu Lin have learned to help their elders take care of and maintain various calligraphy and painting works of art since they were young.
The ancients said that the fragrance of ink is the fragrance of ink.
To be honest objectively, most inks, whether they are pine smoke ink, oil smoke ink, Hui ink or Jin ink, the smell of most inks is not good, and some are even pungent.Stink.
Those scrolls that have been stored in camphor wood boxes for a long time will have a refreshing plant smell when they are taken out, which is full of ancient meaning and has quite a charm.
The aroma in Ms. Tang Ning’s picture of hundreds of flowers was dyed using a similar method.
There are also some slight differences.
The 21st century may be the era when artists have the highest social status in history.
Ms. Tangning is a great painter worth tens of millions of dollars. Third-class painters like Gu Weijing's ancestors were, to put it bluntly, middle- and lower-class literati who supported their families by painting for nobles at the Forbidden City Painting Academy.
Everyone plays at different levels.
When Gu Weijing received the picture of hundreds of flowers, he realized that the aroma on the picture was not the common smell of camphor wood. It was fresher and much longer.
That piece of wood, which is like a sponge with all the small holes on it, emits a smell that is sweet and pure, fragrant but not greasy, and rich in layers.
It smells like layers of flowers blown down by the wind in spring.
The old man played with the small piece of wood and studied it for a long time, and then carefully put the piece of wood back. He sighed with emotion. Mr. Cao’s disciples really know how to play and are really rich. .
"There is fragrance added here," Gu Weijing guessed.
“Perfume, it’s so old-fashioned. People are playing in a traditional style. If you don’t feel embarrassed by using perfume, others will feel embarrassed too.”
“ Young people, you don’t have enough experience. You think you are a literati painter if you can draw two strokes. The important thing is Fengya. You, I still have a lot to learn from your grandfather."
At that time, Gu Tongxiang took a look. .
After demonstrating his authority as a grandfather, the old man explained to Gu Weijing in a conspicuous manner.
"If my guess is correct, this should be the legendary agarwood." He tapped the dark wood with his fingertips.
Agarwood is the holy product among agarwood.
Agarwood is a special fragrance formed when a tree is damaged by external force, and the fragrant wood secretes oil to wrap the wound.
It is divided into four types: raw knot, mature knot, falling off and insect leakage.
The latter is the most precious, and the longest and sweetest. It is not like wood, but more similar to flowers.
Bugs are very smart.
Two agarwood trees on a piece of land, it will only bite the sweetest and most fragrant one. The bacteria on different agarwood trees, the acidic substances secreted by the bites of different groups of insects, finally form The spices also have different aromas.
It is said in the Yashan Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty, "Insect leakage, insect-eaten holes, not much fragrant, and all the powdery soil inside is called insect mouth powder. Those with belly flowers are valued for their black color. Beautiful women When paired with it, the fragrance is as overwhelming as a hundred flowers."
One tael of strange nan and ten taels of gold.
It takes 20 to 30 years for this small piece of pure black agarwood, which is not much bigger than a fingernail, to grow. This fragrant wood was one of the most precious woods in ancient times.one.
In modern times, it is different from the devalued camphor wood.
Authentic Qiongdao antique agarwood is sold by the gram. On the auction market, each gram ranges from 1,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan. Large pieces of agarwood have been sold for several million yuan. price.
Using this kind of thing to prevent insect infestation is really a big deal.
"Isn't agarwood made from insects? It can also prevent insects." Gu Weijing was confused.
"It's very simple. It's probably because the bugs come to bite the wood. When the bugs are full, they won't bite the paintings. Just like the anti-corrosion zinc blocks inlaid on the ocean-going ships in Yangon Port, seawater Corroding the zinc block will not corrode the metal on the ship."
Gu Tongxiang glanced at the unaware grandson and said with certainty.
Actually, the old man is also talking nonsense.
He didn’t know the specific use of this kind of agarwood. After all, it was too advanced. He had only read similar ancient books before and had been in the art circle for a longer time. He had heard about similar things. The specific situation is too far away from his social level, so it can only be said to be specious.
Gu Weijing vaguely felt that his grandfather was not reliable.
He specifically asked Professor Lin Tao for advice and learned that their grandfather and grandson were very similar. They were both big and small dogs who imagined that the emperor would plow the land with a golden hoe.
The small piece of fragrant wood that came with the express delivery was given to him by Ms. Tangning.
The purpose is not the same as the zinc block of sacrificial anodization method, which is used to prevent insects.
But it was burned directly.
In ancient times, when princes and nobles invited celebrities to enjoy paintings and poems, and hold art appreciation meetings, they would bathe and burn incense, and have beautiful geisha girls play guzheng and pipa beside them.
Achieve the multi-level sensory unity of eyes, ears and nose.
Only the heat of the flame can force out all the different levels of aroma in the wood.
When creating and designing this painting, a piece of fragrant wood was burned. Seeing the flowers blooming in front of my eyes, I felt drunk.
Even if you are a layman.
In order to see a painting, I burned a small piece of gold. If I wasn’t drunk, I might have to convince myself that I was drunk.
This is not burning fragrant wood, it is burning real money
It is even more heroic than Brother Chow Yun-fat lighting a cigarette with a Franklin dollar in A Better Tomorrow
Xia's literati pursued elegance to an extreme.
In today's top art exhibitions, some installation artists will add special aromatherapy systems when setting up the exhibition, using scent as a part of the art exhibition.
To put it bluntly,
This seemingly new style of gameplay was left over from the aristocratic literati in the Wei, Jin, Tang and Song dynasties.
After all, Gu Weijing did not understand the way that ancient officials appreciated paintings, and when he learned where the small piece of agarwood came from, he burned it.
Gu Tongxiang pouted and muttered, this is really too wasteful.He was too coquettish, so he took the piece of fragrant wood away without ceremony.
Thousands of dollars
It is a waste of scraps to turn into beads.
The old man was going to find a chain, tie it up, hang it on his wrist, and show it to Old Man Wu.
You can't find such good stuff in his entire literary and toy shop, even if you have money, you can't buy it.
Hmph.
I have to starve Old Man Wu to death
Before Gu Weijing got the hundred flowers picture sent, it must have been appreciated by Tang Ning's artist friends in the fragrance.
The rice paper pages have been thoroughly fumigated by the smoke from the plants.
The scroll unfolded little by little. Gu Weijing did not burn the incense wood, but the flowers were still fragrant.
The quality of a work of art has something to do with the character of the owner of the work, but not that much. A corrupt official like Li Shen, who is said in urban legends to kill dozens of chickens and eat chicken tongue soup for every meal, could still write a great poem praising farmers such as "Compassion for the Farmers" that has been passed down through the ages.
Tang Ning is a little smarter as a person, and she is really good at painting.
She was not a few years older than Gu Weijing when she painted this painting. It was already the work of a famous master. Every time she opened it, Gu Weijing was amazed.
Floral and woody fragrances are just the icing on the cake. Elegance, luxury and nobility are easy to imitate.
This kind of brushwork is truly wonderful.
On the branches and leaves of the plant, the brush strokes are round, thick, gentle, strong and broad-minded, and the brush strokes always maintain an upright and upright center, achieving an artistic effect of being round, strong and free, and bringing this plant that will never appear in the human world. The vigorous vitality of the flowers and trees is vividly displayed.
Ms. Tang Ning probably has calligraphy skills since she was a child.
Such a straight, vigorous and hard way of using the brush, as sharp as an old monk using an ax to carve a monument, with sparks flying, is rarely seen in the hands of female painters, let alone a little girl in her twenties. .
If a boy like Gu Weijing were to draw, he would not be able to draw as well as he does.
And the colorful flowers on the flower trees, with a twist of the pen, show the delicacy of the women's small bridges and flowing water in the Jiangnan water town, with elegant flying, thin lines and sublime atmosphere.
The first-level calligraphy and painting techniques of a master are no worse than the master knowledge card given to him by the system.
In terms of brushwork, he is still two ranks ahead of Gu Weijing.
Cao Xuan’s biggest expectation for Gu Weijing is that he can win a small award at the Singapore Art Exhibition, including the Best Newcomer Award and the Best Creative Art Award.
After the millennium, the organizing committee of the International Biennale has established more awards.
Everyone has finally come to participate in a solo exhibition, but it is boring to have three melons and two jujubes. There may be twenty or thirty awards, and the main one is to participate, and everyone will get the rain and dew.
Of course, the awards at the Singapore Art Exhibition are absolutely unreliable.
Even rain and dewEven if you apply it evenly, you will only get a dozen leaves at the top and top of a lush tree, which is still very difficult for Gu Weijing.
Tang Ning directly won the first place gold medal at the Magic City Art Exhibition where many famous artists participated, overshadowing a lot of senior painters in their fifties and sixties.
This is not just about adding two kilograms of spices to the scroll, or her teacher is Cao Xuan's back door.
In fact, the painting is good.
Ms. Tang Ning was willing to send the work to Gu Weijing for face-to-face copying, which was actually very generous.
Qiongdao agarwood worth thousands of yuan per gram is just burned. It is not worth mentioning in the hearts of such top artists. When converted into income ratio, it is no more than ordinary people ordering mosquito coils. many.
But the original painting is really valuable.
In the past, Gu Weijing thought that it was only worth a Porsche 911 sports car. Now, under the background that Tang Ning's worth doubled at the Xiangjiang auction last month.
Considering the commemorative value of this Hundred Flowers Picture.
The Porsche 911 sports car has been turned into a duplex apartment outside London's Financial Street.
For such a precious painting, when Ms. Tangning heard that he wanted to copy it, she sent it directly to Gu's calligraphy and painting shop.
Based on the dark speculation, maybe if the female artist saved Gu Weijing and failed to preserve it properly, the painting would be damaged, and she would be unable to afford the huge debt and become a hard-working little puppet from then on. The mind that was at her mercy.
The most likely answer is that people don’t care at all.
I just want to send you the Hundred Flowers Picture and tell you clearly.
People like you can’t draw it even if you follow it.
Gu Weijing carefully hung the scroll on the hanging mirror wire hanging from the corner of the wall, and pondered it for a moment under the light.
Take out a roll of rice paper and lay it out on the table.
Put all kinds of Chinese painting pigments at hand.
In the past, Gu Weijing racked his brains and could not imitate even the superficial and essence of "Hundred Flowers".
Tonight, when he returned from the botanical garden, he ran back to the Good Luck Orphanage because he felt it was time to give it another try.
What supports the height of a painting is the triangle of knowledge, technique, and emotion.
Professor Lin Tao has already taught you everything you need to know about painting flowers.
There is a huge gap in skills between the two.
But in the remaining aspect, Gu Weijing is not unmatched. In fact,
he is now confident that he can draw even better than Tang Ning. Please remember to collect it, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft