Yang Guifei with a Parrot

Zhang Daqian's facility as a figure painter, improved by years of studying early scroll paintings and the murals at Dunhuang, is demonstrated in this depiction of the infamous consort of the eighth-century Tang emperor Xuanzong. The portrayal is an eclectic mix of sources and styles. Yang Guifei's elaborate coiffure recalls Tang models; her costume and the animated brushwork that defines her fluttering scarves and swirling hem derive from sixteenth-century prototypes; and her coquettish expression and theatrical pose recall cinematic images of contemporary beauties.

Zhang's lithe brushwork and facile rendering of Yang Guifei's complex stance infuse her figure with immediacy and drama. Her relationship with her pet is emphasized by their eye contact and by the juxtaposition of the parrot with the phoenix ornamenting her coiffure. Zhang's inscription elucidates their conspiratorial connection:

During the Tianbao era [742–55], the provincial governor of Lingnan presented the emperor with a white parrot of exceptional intelligence, which the emperor and [his consort] Yang Guifei named Girl in a Dress of Snow. The emperor often played dice with his concubines and princes. When the emperor was winning, everyone would cheer and the parrot would fly into the middle of the game to break it up.

(Wen Fong, trans., Between Two Cultures: Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001], p. 203)