YEN LI-PEN

born c. 600 died 673 Pinyin Yan Liben one of the most famous of Chinese figure painters in the early years of the T'ang dynasty (AD 618907). Yen Li-pen was a high official within the imperial court, but his fame derives from his skill as a painter. He is recorded as having painted Buddhist and Taoist subjects and as having received various imperial commissions; but among the extant works attributed to him, the most important is a hand scroll of Portraits of the Emperors in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, depicting a series of emperors selected from about the preceding 800 years of history (only the last seven of the portraits are original; the first six were copies of earlier works). Yen Li-pen has imbued them with subtly defined characters through a tightly controlled line and limited use of colour. His brother, Yen Li-teh (d. 656), was also a famous official and painter.