Research
Of silk embroidery.
This remarkable portrait is executed using the very fine needlework technique known as Su, or Suzhou, embroidery. The craft originated over 2,000 years ago in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and it is one of the four main regional styles of Chinese embroidery. Ming Dynasty scholar Wang Ao (1450 – 1524) described the practice in a volume of Gu Su Zhi as “exquisite, fine, elegant and pure, called Suzhou embroidery.”
To create such a work, a translucent silk canvas is prepared and tightened on a frame, and an outline of the design is delicately drawn onto the surface. Silk threads of appropriate colors are chosen and then split into even finer filaments for embroidering – some up to 1/64th the size of a full thread2 – to achieve a result so delicate that it has the an ethereal effect resembling a painting. The finest embroidered works comprise hundreds of thousands of stitches.
The present portrait is taken after an original oil painting entitled GIRL (1991) by the Chinese artist named Zhang Li (figure 1). The woman represented is of Miao origin, a minority ethnic group of the mountainous Guizhou province of south-eastern China. She is wearing a traditional silver headdress adorned with bells, and holds further strands of silver bells in her hands. The Miao people are known for their great skill and artistry in handicrafts, particularly embroidery and silver.
Full research available on request.