Skip to content
  • English
  • Italiano
language
Facebook page opens in new windowInstagram page opens in new windowYouTube page opens in new windowTwitter page opens in new windowPinterest page opens in new windowLinkedin page opens in new windowTiktok' page opens in new window
  • Shop Online
  • Newsletter
store locator
Il Bisonte Firenze
Luxury for free spirits
Il Bisonte Firenze
  • Corporate
  • Sustainability
  • Culture
  • Style
  • Art Bags
  • Magazine

/ JOURNAL

  • Corporate
  • Sustainability
  • Culture
  • Style
  • Art Bags
  • Magazine

On backgrounds

You are here:
  1. Home
  2. Journal
  3. Culture
  4. On backgrounds
It most certainly happened in Xu Beihong’s studio. Considering the dates: probably sometime between 1931 and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, perhaps in 1936. Looking at Sun Duoci’s clothing, it was summer. Sun, the girl portrayed by the famous painter Xu Beihong, was herself a painter. She was his pupil. And she was having an affair with him. It would be nice to fantasize about the circumstances surrounding this painting. Xu, deciding where to place the easel, Sun making herself comfortable in a rocking chair. But we have other details to ponder.

 

The studio of a Chinese painter, with a Greek statue in the background.

 

Objects stand out in the background. Bottom left: a porcelain vase, but that’s unsurprising since we’re in 1930s China. But there on a sideboard: a statuette of Athena, the Greek goddess of Wisdom, protector of the city Athens, about 8,000 kilometers from Xu Beihong’s studio in Nanjing. And even if it’s made of plaster and not marble, it appears to be centuries away from its original era. It likely didn’t spend all that time yellowing on that sideboard, though.

 

Where will the items in our pockets age? .

 

The Journal’s Time Machine has touched on its third contemporary Asian artwork. In fact, just as these works speak to each other over a distance, even those objects we touch every day, on a small, sometimes minute scale, take part in these epoch-spanning conversations between humans, and dialogues between their continents. Who knows how the item in our pockets will age? If one day it might end up in the background of a painting on the other side of the world. Il Bisonte has always placed great hopes in these connections.

SHARE
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook TweetShare on Twitter Pin itShare on Pinterest Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp
LATEST

Memory in nature

The landscape’s important role for men’s memory.
Read more

A Picnic Basket
For Impressionist Art
2008

The Impressionists were used to paint en plein air, outdoors. The spirit of their days,…
Read more

A Saddlebag
For Galileo Galilei
2009

An olive-colored cowhide saddlebag abundant in pockets was created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of…
Read more

Il Bisonte and sustainability: a strong commitment

All the leather used in making Il Bisonte bags and accessories comes from animals raised…
Read more

Forest white

The Books nature
Read more

On the edge – Shyam Sunder Paliwal #3

In Piplantri the women are hard at work, not within the confines of their homes,…
Read more

Post-Punk Dante

The passion for living life in all its aspects to the fullest.
Read more

From above

Presentation of the SS23 collection – 15 June
Read more

The Sound Of Trees

Every tree has a voice.
Read more

Food for thoughts

We wonder about what it means when food appears in art, when what nourishes us…
Read more

Giving up gold. Nemonte Nenquimo and every forest

What’s the link between: ancient legends, gold fever and forests’s respect ?
Read more

MUTUAL CARE – GIACOMO SALIZZONI #3

Meeting the needs of plants and the people who care for them in the Orti…
Read more
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Customize Cookies
  • Careers
Legal

© Il Bisonte Firenze | Il Bisonte S.p.A. - VAT - IT02076930482

Go to Top