Portraits of the Past Thirteen Emperors， a Tang Dynasty（618.907） hand scroll by Yan Liben， ink and color on silk， 51.3cm×531cm， in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts， Boston.
Yan Liben（?.673） was an epoch-making artist who set a new painting style in the early Tang Dynasty. He was skillful at drawing characters， carriages， pavilions and particularly at portraits. He liked to depict personality and stress realistic approach in his works.
This painting contains portraits of thirteen emperors from the Western Han（206 BC.25 AD） to Tang Dynasty（618.907）。 To show their characters， emperors depicted have different countenances and postures. It has strong strokes and appropriate tinting， representing the achievement of figure painting in the early Tang Dynasty period. It takes an important place in the history of ancient Chinese painting and is a national cultural treasure.