Hankan - Kankan

Years of birth and death unknown. Chinese painter of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Master of horse painting. Born in Lantian, Shaanxi Province. Recognized for his talent as an artist by Wang Wei, he began to study painting from a young age, and later studied under Cao Ba, who was famous for his horse paintings. He became a court painter during the Tianbao era (742-755) of the Xuanzong Dynasty, and painted famous horses and nobles. Emperor Xuanzong loved horses, and is said to have had Han Gan paint all of the horses in his inner palace stables, which numbered 400,000 at the time. Han Gan observed many famous horses and perfectly captured their ideal appearance and characteristics, and his horse paintings became models for later generations, greatly influencing this genre of painting in later generations.

[Shinya Hoshiyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年不詳。中国、盛唐の画家。馬の画(え)の名手。陝西(せんせい)省藍田(らんでん)の人。王維(おうい)に画才を認められて少年時より画業を修め、のち画馬で名高い曹覇(そうは)に学ぶ。天宝年間（742～755）に玄宗朝の宮廷画家となり、名馬、功臣を描いた。馬を好んだ玄宗帝は、当時40万頭に達したという内殿の厩(うまや)の馬をみな韓幹に描かせたという。韓幹はさまざまな名馬を観察して理想の姿や特性を写しきわめ、その画馬は後代の典型となり、後世のこの分野の画に大きな影響を与えた。

［星山晋也］

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