This painting is of the Chinese stable of horses being fed in the year 1324. In this time period, Ferghana horses were just one of the countries biggest imports, which originally came from the central area of Asia. During the Han Dynasty, China had power of the military to protect Dayuan, which is a city in Ferghana. As the Chinese imported these large amount of horses, the kings of Ferghana restricted this trade by shutting down their borders to China. This action created a war, which made China victorious. In 102 CE, the Chinese ordered that the country of Ferghana offer a minimum of ten of their best horses so they could use them for breeding. They would also use 3,000 of Ferghana horses of regular quality for daily purposes.
This is very interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that horses would be the reason to the start of a war. I know some people are obsessed with them but not enough to start a war. I like how you can see in this piece the great brush strokes and the bit of color that was just about to take off.
ReplyDeleteI like that this has such a beautiful simplicity representative of the Chinese style.
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