Chocolate is a treat that softens the moment you hold it too long. But building a whole miniature town out of chocolate feels like magic and a miracle.A woman in China received immense appreciation and praise online after her video of a ‘chocolaty artwork’ went viral on social media.
Photo: ctdsb.net
Woman builds an ancient city of chocolate inspired by an age-old painting
A woman in China who never trained as an artist has turned 60 kilograms of chocolate into a miniature, three-dimensional version of one of the country’s most treasured paintings.Creator Fan Sumu posted a video of her work, which shows a chocolate recreation of the ancient city of Bianjing, inspired by the famous scroll ‘Along the River During the Qingming Festival’; it has amassed nearly one million likes ever since.
What makes the masterpiece so special?
The original masterpiece was painted by Zhang Zeduan during the Northern Song dynasty in the 12th century and ranks among the best-known artworks in Chinese history.The handscroll stands 25.5cm tall and stretches 5.2m long, and is revered for its detailed portrait of daily life along the Bian River in what was then the capital. Often called “China’s Mona Lisa,” it has been replicated many times, though rarely, if ever, in chocolate.
The woman focused on the details of the painting
The South China Morning Post reports that her piece measures 1.22m wide and seven metres long, and includes 176 houses, 281 trees, more than 20 boats, and 816 tiny people. To get there, she worked not only in chocolate but also with fondant and rice paper. She had made a small section last year before committing three months to the full scroll this year.Each house, she said, measures around 10 to 20cm tall, the human figures measure just 2cm, and the smallest window is under 1cm. The trickiest parts were the ropes. “Ropes, like those used by farmers to pull a cart, are as thin as hair,” Fan was quoted as saying. She explained that she piped melted chocolate from a bag and shaped each one before it could harden.
The project was not without shortcomings
Fan began in her living room, but the work quickly outgrew the space, so she rented a larger house 25km away. While relocating, according to the report, many of her creations were shattered, forcing her to start over.
She is not professionally trained
Born after 1995, Fan studied international trade at college and once worked as a food blogger, with no formal art education. According to SCMP, she learnt entirely from online videos. Apart from this, she has previously rendered the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing, the Yingxian Pagoda in Shanxi, and the Eiffel Tower in chocolate, along with paintings such as A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
