Why are there 2 Seals on some Chinese Art?

Question

Some Chinese art has 2 different seals, is it the Artist and the Apprentice? There is a red seal and a black ink, who's seal is red and who's is black ink?

I volunteer for an art program at an elementary school and have a piece of art I cannot find anything online about. The painting I am to show them is by Fan Chi (1616-1694) "Six Album Leaves" it has six monochormatic landscapes. I need help finding out about the artwork.

 

 

Answer 1

Most people in China possess a personal name seal. Artists, scholars, collectors and intellectuals may possess a full set of name seals, leisure seals, and studio seals. Today, personal identification is often by a hand signature accompanied by a seal imprint. Seals can serve as identification with signatures because they are difficult to forge (when compared to forging a signature) and only the owner has access to his own seal.Seals are also often used on Chinese calligraphy works and Chinese paintings, usually imprinted in such works in the order (from top to bottom) of name seal, leisure seal(s), then studio seal. Owners or collectors of paintings or books will often add their own studio seals to pieces they have collected. This practice is an act of appreciation towards the work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(Chine…

******EDIT*****

Hi! I cannot find a reference to the (any!) work by him but.... there is more than enough information in these links for a lesson on "Six Album Leaves," artist notwithstanding. Not to worry... Album leaves were simply a means of efficient (and effective) presentation rather than the title of a specific piece.. so I would simply interpret each vignette on its own graphic and symbolic merit and create a narrative.. or ask them to! I hope that this helps!!!

http://www.npm.gov.tw/exhbition/clea007/…
http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/pai…
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/…
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Chinese…
http://books.google.com/books?id=tJXiQsw…
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_pai…