When Michaelangelo created the statue of David, he was famous for implying that the statue was always there. All he did was chip away the pieces that weren’t David. While most of us look at a tree and see a tree, a Chinese artist saw much more just like Michaelangelo saw David in a large piece of marble.
Zheng Chunhui, a brilliant wood carver turned a large wooden trunk into an amazing tree trunk carving that took over 4 years to build and spans over 40 feet.
The sculpture is based on the Chinese painting ‘Along the River During the Qingming Festival’. It was created over 1,000 years ago and Chunhui captured all of its intricate details in his tree trunk carving.
The painting has been replicated many times but never in a wooden sculpture as beautiful as this.
It features highly detailed carvings of boats, buildings, bridges, and people.
A tree was the perfect canvas as the original painting was created on a long scroll. The original scroll was over 17 feet long.
It also features carvings of 550 people representing what daily life was like in ancient China.
H/t: Daily Mail
I am still in awe of the amount of intricate detail in the people and buildings. It was unveiled at the Palace Museum in Beijing and is truly a piece that will be admired for generations to come. Please share this world record tree trunk carving by Zheng Chunhui with your friends and family.