Shen (神) character painted over a seal

Question

The same 神 character is painted over a seal on 2 different artworks:

An early landscape painting (by Wei Xian/卫贤?):
A calligraphy by Wang Xizhi:

Painting over a seal seems rather rare to me. I guess this one is the seal from a collector, but I might be wrong. Do you know a particular reason why it has been painted? And does it have a special meaning (maybe a religious one)?

Edit: here's an attempt to make the seal readable:

It looks more like the seal was stamped over the character afterwards. — dROOOze, Apr 02 '18 at 17:42
Right, it is obvious now you've said it. I can't read the seal script unfortunately... — LeBorgne, Apr 02 '18 at 19:39
the seal is "乾隆寶翰", his majesty seal of the fifth Emperor of qing dynasty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Emperor — 水巷孑蠻, Apr 02 '18 at 21:38

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '18 at 21:54

10

well, the emperor 乾隆 was a collector, he used four characters "神", "妙", "能" & "逸" to categorise artworks (calligraphy, or painting).

and then, he used his seal to chop on the artwork :(

answered Apr 02 '18 at 21:54

水巷孑蠻

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Thanks 水巷孑蠻! I found an English explanation here thanks to your hint: http://theme.npm.edu.tw/exh102/qianlong/en/en02.html – LeBorgne Apr 02 '18 at 22:10
great, you get it :) – 水巷孑蠻 Apr 02 '18 at 22:25

Shen (神) character painted over a seal

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