Banquet with the Emperor

     Today we are looking at a piece called "Banquet with the Emperor." The goal of this piece was to capture what it would be like to attend such an elegant banquet. The emperor himself hosted these banquets, and as a leading court official or scholar-bureaucrat, you would be very honored to have been invited. In the painting, one can see the gathering of high officials drinking tea and wine. It is a small gathering of only the higher officials making this event very exclusive. Because of the impressive detail, the painting even captures the emotions of the people attending. The emperor at the time this was created was Huizong, and it is said that he himself was a painter, poet, and collector of various forms of art. However, this passion of his often got in the way of his duties as a ruler. His people viewed him as being negligent and as a dissolute ruler because he paid more attention to the arts than to state affairs. The end of his reign was not your typical fairytale ending as the northern nomadic Jin people eventually captured him, and China suffered greatly from this defeat. Though the Chinese believed that action and work needed to be balanced by self-reflection and leisure, they were not happy with the way their Emperor put art before his political duties. The painting captures the way the elites of China interacted and spent time together during their leisure moments. It is truly a beautiful piece of work that captures an essential piece of history. 

- Sydney Cruse