The Lion

Liu Jiude, a native of Shuntian (modern Beijing), specialized in painting figures but was especially gifted at depicting ladies and doing portraits.
The name of this paintings mentions the animal depicted as a “suanni,” which is the ancient name for a lion in Chinese. In this very large work, a lion is seen walking by a fast-moving stream, the robust body of the animal taking up almost the entire composition to convey its fierce and majestic character. The brushwork used to depict the lion is exceptionally refined, the hairs of the mane rendered almost stroke by stroke for the individual strands. The background, on the other hand, has much more bravura, creating a dramatic contrast with the lion. However, since people in ancient times rarely had the chance to view a lion, they must have added numerous details of the imagination, as demonstrated by the odd and even humorous features seen here.