The maestro and the artist

Silvano Lattanzi, the maestro of made-in-Italy shoemaking, was totally conquered by a painting hung in the entrance hall of the very modern Rich Gate, the luxury district in Shanghai.

The painting, before which he knelt down to show his admiration, is the "Rich Gate Rose" painted by Liu Linghua, who's known as the "Chinese Van Gogh."

Friendship of masters

It was in May 2006 when Lattanzi first met Liu Linghua who was working on his 15-square-meter great piece. Lattanzi, from the country where Renaissance began, saw the painting accidentally and was immediately impressed by its beauty. He told others that he never imagined that Western oil-painting techniques could be developed so well by a Chinese and that this was the best painting he had ever seen.

In the eyes of Westerners, Lattanzi is a great master of shoemaking, fashion and arts. His devoutness for the "Rich Gate Rose" well shows the high level of Liu's painting. Ever since this, the two art masters of different nationalities, different ages and different cultural backgrounds have forged a profound friendship.

When Lattanzi came back to China six months later with the pair of shoes he made for Liu, he insisted on delivering the shoes to Liu himself. The two friends met again at the Rich Gate and Liu Linghua presented an embroidery of his master work "The Drunken Beauty" in return.

Under the limelight, Lattanzi again knelt down in front of the painting and said to Liu sincerely: "The others call me master but before your art, you are the master and I am not."

Devotion to painting

Faced with such compliments, Liu Linghua was not complacent at all though he did have a sense of national pride. He thought it was the worthy art that won salute from the Western maestro. Oil painting has reached the supreme level in the West while it is beginning to take root in China.

Liu expressed repeatedly that his works should be explained by painting and not his own words of compliments.

He pays all his attention to painting, only hoping for constant breakthrough and innovations. He does not care about the prices of his works, though his paintings are valued on the market.

He does not care about the titles, though he's on par with the greatest painter. A leading light or a grand master of art, Liu pays little attention to it.

Liu thinks actions are more important than words. In his mind, the works of an important or successful Chinese oil painter should have symbols of China, complete and independent language of painting, pleasant visual attractions, magnificent emotions and ideal space for spiritual distillation.

An artwork will be called outstanding or successful as long as it can affect the audience. East or West, the audience will then accept and love it.

(China Daily 11/28/2007 page18)