Makers › Master Craftsmen
Shen Zifan
Southern Song kesi silk-tapestry weaver who reproduced paintings in woven silk and signed his work Zifan
A craft workshop centres on a potter's wheel holding a tall celadon vase, amid racks of red lacquer boxes, an embroidery frame with a floral design, shelves of celadon ware, carved wooden panels and stacked logs, while one craftsman works at a table and another stands at a glowing kiln.
Also known as Signature Zifan
- Roles
- Master Craftsmen
Shen Zifan was a Southern Song master of kesi, the silk tapestry in which coloured wefts are woven only where each colour is needed; almost nothing is recorded of his life or home. He used it to reproduce paintings and calligraphy and often wove the signature Zifan into the piece. His surviving works include the hanging scrolls Magpies on a Plum Branch and Blue-and-Green Landscape and a flower-and-bird scroll in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, finely graded in colour and using several kesi techniques; his landscape catches the feel of blue-and-green painting. Writers on Song kesi usually name him together with Zhu Kerou.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Southern Song