Copy Giraffe Shen Tu and Wang Chengpei

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Taken from: 明初孟加拉国贡麒麟图 by 常任侠 (Kylin tribute from Bangladesh in the early Ming Dynasty by Chang Ren Xia)

https://www.dpm.org.cn/Uploads/pdf/1560/T00016_00.pdf

https://www.dpm.org.cn/Uploads/pdf/1560/T00048_04.pdf

榜葛剌国贡麒麟图 (The picture of the unicorn as a tribute from Banggela)

On the top of the painting, there is "Song and Preface to Rui Ying Qilin": 瑞应麒麟颂并序 written by Shen Du.

The copy by the famous painter Wang Chengpei (汪承沛) is equally precious. (=the painting that has the poem on top.) Chang Ren Xia received it from Prof. O. C. Gangoly. The giraffe without the poem, Chang Ren Xia received it when visiting Beijing in 1949.

These two paintings are very much identical except for some of the colors of the attendant. What the two have in common but different from all other copies is the text on the left side of the painting, the fact that the two hooves of the frond legs are on one horizontal line, that the rope the attendant is holding touches the floor and that the neck of the giraffe is way shorter then the other paintings.