Tang ensemble 唐代乐团

I found this sun-blistered painting depicting a Tang dynasty ensemble of musicians in this random village on the border of Beijing and the adjacent Hebei province while on a biking/photo outing.

 

I found this village not far from Song Zhuang (the world's largest artist village on the eastern edge of Beijing) while out on a random outing (Pre-pandemic days). It was an interesting experience for me to find this secluded little village on the other side of a small river which was only accessed by crossing a small bridge. Despite being situated next to a huge world metropolis the people here seemed detached from the outside and were quite surprised and slightly suspicious of me suddenly appearing as a big-nosed caucasian foreigner in their little village.

 

Once I got to chatting with them in their own language they immediately opened up and were very happy and curious to chat with me for a bit. The people here were fairly poor, yet the whole community felt very orderly and well looked after and the elderly community members were out on the street chatting and sitting in the warm summer soon, while others were hawking their wares streetside.

 

As it turned out, an artist from the nearby artist village had donated this painting to the village and they had proudly presented it at the entrance to the village. What struck me about this artwork was its authentically ancient feel and the natural decay that had set in from the elements which only added to the historic feel of this work.

 

The golden-yellowish tones and saturation in this image are slightly less pronounced than in the adjacent detail photo.

 

Uncropped

Sony RX100 M1

Capture One for Sony -> Lr -> PS

Done