Art Reboot

78 commentary directly onto an existing western painting, even post-revolution and on one they owned, would be considered a vandal. In China, it was the process that was sacrosanct rather than the art object. This contrast – vandal or connoisseur – con- firms that we have yet to grasp the implications of the western revolution in the arts, or to recognise the long-standing maturity of Chinese art. The term ‘colophon’ derives from the name given to a page or two added, particularly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, at the end of a book to give details of its creation. This is extended in writing about Chinese art to include any additional comments or responses added to a work of art. Owners would often write much longer inscriptions than had the original artist, particularly on paintings from prior to the fourteenth century, when lengthy inscriptions became standard. By then the literati had come to combine painting, calligraphy and poetry in what became known as the ‘Three Perfections’, a natural outcome of fully emancipated pictorial art. Such colophons could be written on extra paper mounted with the original work of art, or on the mount, but since the art object was not sacrosanct it was equally acceptable to write directly onto the original painting, usually, although not in every case, on areas of blank paper suggesting sky, clouds or water. Collectors’ seals, however, frequently partially obscured areas of the painted image. The title panel of a handscroll might be in- scribed by another artist, whether at the request of the original artist or centuries later. Extra paper could be mounted at the end of the handscroll, often extending its length to many times the