Portrait of Lord Zhao Ding

This magnificent portrait of Zhao Ding (1086–1147) was likely a special commission by Zhao’s descendants to serve as a ritual work preserved in the family’s ancestral temple or a local confucian paragon shrine in Xiezhou, Shanxi. When the Song state stood on the verge of destruction by the nomadic Nuzhen, Zhao Ding openly advocated the use of force against the invasion. His opponents, led by Qin Kuai who belonged to a powerful court faction, caused him to be demoted. Eventually Zhao chose to die by hunger strike, thus demonstrating his dedication to safeguarding the Song dynasty. Years later, the new emperor Xiaozong (reigned 1163–1189) restored Zhao’s reputation and granted him the posthumous title Faithful Being.

In this painting Zhao Ding stands in a dignified pose, presenting a tablet hu, a kind of ritual scepter, as though at the imperial court. The damaged, incomplete inscription verifies that this portrait was intended to commemorate his name being entered in the official annals. Details of his striking multiridged black hat, and the full-length brocade robe with strings of pearls and jade pendants suspended from the side, provide invaluable firsthand insight into the formal court uniform code of the Tang and Song dynasties. This is an extremely rare official portrait belonged to the Mongol Yuan period or even earlier. Dubosc owned this work and lent it to the famous 1968 Yuan exhibition at the Cleveland Museum. Sherman Lee and Wai-kam Ho believed this work was commisioned around 1331 when a local shrine was built to commemorate this paragon when the infleuence of Neo-Confucianism spread across northern China. Dubosc later sold this work to Brundage.