Page 47 - The Book of Rumi

Chinese and Greek Painters

hinese painters and their Greek counterparts in Asia Minor had been
Cgreat rivals since the beginning of time, each considering themselves
superior to the other. No one was truly able to say whose style was more
sophisticated or which painters’ works were more beautiful. This rivalry had
gone on for much too long, and the sultan of Rûm, in Asia Minor, had
become weary of the tireless backbiting on both sides.
Finally, he decided to stage a competition to establish once and for all
which painters were the most accomplished and the worthiest of their time.
The sultan decided to assign two of his empty cottages, which faced each
other on the palace grounds, to the two groups of competing contestants.
The Chinese were to occupy one cottage, while the Greek painters were to live
and work in the one opposite. They had one month to present their projects
to the sultan.
The Chinese were eager to begin work and asked for numerous colors
of paint, immediately setting out to draw their designs on the walls of their
house. The Greeks asked for nothing. They had brought with them special
stones for polishing the surface of the walls. Shortly after arrival in their cot-
tage, they began the grueling task of rubbing down the residue of many years
of rot and decay that covered all the walls in their cottage.
It took the Greek painters countless hours of arduous work to remove
the effects of many years of wear and tear on the aged walls, old paint and
mildew that they scrubbed and polished over and over again. Meanwhile, their
Chinese counterparts were busy applying layers and layers of paint, beautify-
ing their own designs as they covered over what remained of the old paint.
The Greek painters were well aware of the art of the Chinese and were
familiar with their methods. The Chinese, though, had no idea what the
Greeks were up to. People were impatient to see what the great artists of their
time had been working on and could hardly wait a day longer. After a month
of labor, at last the artists were ready to show their masterpieces to the ulti-
mate judge, the sultan.

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