Garden Flowers

Garden Flowers

After Chen Chun  (Chinese, 1483–1544)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

dated 1540

Culture:

China

Medium:

Album of sixteen paintings and one leaf of calligraphy; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image (six leaves): 12 13/16 x 22 9/16 in. (32.5 x 57.3 cm) Image (ten leaves): 13 1/8 x 22 3/4 in. (33.3 x 57.8 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Following Shen Zhou’s (1427–1509) example of treating still-life painting as uninhibited “ink plays,” Chen Chun strove to turn his flower paintings into spontaneous “idea writings.” Realistic flower paintings had been a popular subject since at least the tenth century, and Chen Chun was perhaps the greatest exponent of this genre in his time. This album, with a rich variety of spring blossoms, treats flowers not merely as botanical specimens but also as inevitable reminders of the brevity of life, beauty, and material existence.

Wintry Plum (Han Mei)

Wintry Plum (Han Mei)

Ni Jing  (Chinese, active late 14th century)

Period:

Yuan (1271–1368)–Ming (1368–1644) dynasty

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and pale color on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 41 15/16 x 9 3/4 in. (106.5 x 24.8 cm) Overall with mounting: 75 3/4 x 14 1/8 in. (192.4 x 35.9 cm) Overall with knobs: 75 3/4 x 15 15/16 in. (192.4 x 40.5 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

 Bequest of Dorothy Graham Bennett

Plum blossoms were first depicted as an independent subject by the eleventh-century Chan (Zen, in Japanese) monk Zhongren Huaguang. In this work by the otherwise unknown Buddhist monk Ni Jing, both composition and brushwork derive from the renowned Yuan-dynasty plum painter Wang Mian (d. 1359). The plum, the first flower to appear in spring, is celebrated along with bamboo and pine as one of the Three Friends of Winter. Admired for its purity and hardiness, sending forth new shoots and delicate blossoms from seemingly lifeless branches, the plum became a symbol of survival, rejuvenation, and longevity. Here, the tight clusters of pale blossoms and buds indicate that the plum has just begun to flower. The artist’s poem reads:

Blossoms compete with the moon in luminosity,
One hundred of them merge and make me suspect that
snow has fragrance.
Worldly men vie in boasting fine colors,
Do not call for hand-scooped water to rinse off the pink
adornment.

The Pure Whiteness of Winter

The Pure Whiteness of Winter

Xu Jing  (Chinese, active first half 15th century)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

dated 1441

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 58 7/8 x 30 in. (149.5 x 76.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 107 3/4 x 37 1/4 in. (273.7 x 94.6 cm) Overall with knobs: 107 3/4 x 41 1/4 in. (273.7 x 104.8 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Flowering through snow and cold, plum blossoms are popular symbols of court beauties and of reclusion; as such, they embody romance, tears, lost loves, and the eternal return of springtime. Xu Jing entitled his painting The Pure Whiteness of Winter, partaking of a tradition of imagery in poetry and painting that goes back one thousand years.

Bamboo in Wind

Bamboo in Wind

Xia Chang  (Chinese, 1388–1470)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

ca. 1460

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 80 1/16 x 23 1/2 in. (203.4 x 59.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 118 x 29 3/8 in. (299.7 x 74.6 cm) Overall with knobs: 118 x 32 13/16 in. (299.7 x 83.3 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Bamboo, which bends without breaking, has long been a symbol of integrity and strength. It was also a favorite subject of Ming and Qing scholar-painters. Xia Chang, a native of the Suzhou region, enjoyed a successful official career that led to his appointment as minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices in 1457. He expanded Wang Fu's (1362–1416) style of bamboo painting to become the leading bamboo painter of his time, famous even in Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Applying calligraphic techniques to painting according to the precepts established by Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), Xia Chang executed his bamboo stalks in the archaic seal-script style and his bamboo twigs in the "grass," or cursive-script, style. Xia Chang's calligraphic mode of bamboo painting was followed by many later Ming and Qing painters.

Bamboo and Rock

Bamboo and Rock

Deng Yu  (Chinese, ca. 1300–after 1378)

Period:

Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)

Date:

ca. 1360–67

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 53 3/16 x 16 5/8 in. (135.1 x 42.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 104 1/4 x 23 7/8 in. (264.8 x 60.6 cm) Overall with knobs: 104 1/4 x 27 1/8 in. (264.8 x 68.9 cm)

Classification:

Calligraphy

From the P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Family Collection, Gift of Oscar L. Tang, 1991

Deng Yu, a leading late Yuan literary Daoist, joined the Orthodox Unity sect of Daoism at the age of twelve. By 1360 he had become the abbot of a Daoist temple in Wenzhou, near the Zhejiang coast, and in 1371 he accompanied the 42nd Celestial Master to the Ming capital, where he repeatedly performed miracles of rainmaking.

Bamboo and Rock, executed according to the precepts of the early Yuan scholar-artist Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), demonstrates Deng's familiarity with the literati aesthetic of calligraphic painting. The bamboo leaves are done in clerical script; the stalks, in seal script; and the rocks, drawn in mixed ink tones, simulate the "flying-white" style of calligraphy. A poem inscribed by Liu Renben, the governor-general of Wenzhou under the rebel leader Fang Guozhen, establishes the date of Deng's painting:

After fog and rain, in Jiangnan,
Few friends of integrity remain.
As autumn fills the shores of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers,
Clouds paint the bamboo a deep green.

Dragon Pine

Dragon Pine

Wu Boli  (Chinese, active late 14th–early 15th century)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

ca. 1400

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 48 x 13 1/4 in. (121.9 x 33.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 100 x 18 5/8 in. (254 x 47.3 cm) Overall with knobs: 100 x 21 in. (254 x 53.3 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Landscapes of the Four Seasons

Landscapes of the Four Seasons

Xie Shichen  (Chinese, 1487–ca. 1567)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

dated 1560

Culture:

China

Medium:

Set of four hanging scrolls; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image (a): 126 3/8 x 37 in. (321 x 94 cm) Image (b): 127 1/4 x 36 7/8 in. (323.2 x 93.7 cm) Image (c): 126 3/4 x 36 7/8 in. (321.9 x 93.7 cm) Image (d): 126 7/8 x 36 7/8 in. (322.3 x 93.7 cm) Overall with mounting (b): 141 3/4 x 42 3/8 in. (360 x 107.6 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

These two paintings belong to a set of enormous landscapes depicting the four seasons. They are all similarly composed, with large figures at the bottom and towering mountains above. Each season has its own narrative. In the springtime scene (right), two gentlemen on horseback cross a bridge with their servants. In the summer scene (left), travelers struggle against a strong wind, while a gentleman in a pavilion observes the storm. 

In his paintings Xie Shichen creates spaces that are poetic rather than representational, incorporating narrative vignettes and stylistic references to past masters. Here, he skillfully blends two distinct modes of painting. The first, favored by professional painters, is that of the Zhe School, which tended toward large-scale narrative subjects. The second is ascribed to the Wu School, whose calligraphic approach to landscapes was preferred by scholar-amateurs.

Peacock and Hollyhocks

Peacock and Hollyhocks

Bian Lu  (Chinese, died 1356)

Period:

Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)

Date:

mid-14th century

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 66 7/8 x 40 1/4 in. (169.9 x 102.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 103 x 41 1/4 in. (261.6 x 104.8 cm) Overall with knobs: 103 x 45 7/8 in. (261.6 x 116.5 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

This monumental flower-and-bird composition shows the Uighur Bian Lu working in the highly polished tradition of the Song Imperial Painting Academy. Only the calligraphic character of the drawing, particularly noticeable in the rhythmic outlines of the leaves, betrays its fourteenth-century date. 

The meticulously detailed plumage of the peacock, the gritty texture of the rock, and the delicately shaded leaves and blossoms are a tour de force of representational illusionism. The bird's pose, dramatically balanced on one leg as it prepares to take another step, may refer to a famous anecdote about the Song emperor Huizong, who chided his court painters for failing to observe that when climbing, the peacock always takes the first step with its left leg.

Perch, Grain, and Crab

Perch, Grain, and Crab

Liu Jie  (Chinese, active ca. 1470–1510)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 69 1/4 x 42 1/4 in. (175.9 x 107.3 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

From the Collection of A. W. Bahr, Purchase, Fletcher Fund, 1947

This painting by the court master Liu Jie juxtaposes a large perch with many smaller fish and a variety of flora and fauna, including narcissus in bloom, lily pads, grasses, grain, a crab, and frogs. The effect is one of civilized tranquility in which the large fish, symbolizing a person of obvious stature, swims quietly along a peaceful riverbank. Both the fish and grain symbolize wealth, and the overall impact of the image is suggestive of abundance and reward. Some pictorial elements—perch, grain, and crab—also create a visual pun with a homophonous wish for “peace and harmony in the entire palace,” which makes it clear that this picture was intended for the emperor.

Liu Jie’s formal signature, which gives his title as Commander in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, on Appointment to the Wenhua Palace, confirms that this was an imperial commission. The Wenhua Palace was one of the halls in the Forbidden City at which court painters served. Liu’s rank of commander was very near the highest to which a painter could aspire. Both Liu’s grandfather and father had also held this title as court artists, and Liu Jie would have been entitled to inherit this rank after his father’s death, which apparently occurred only a few years after Liu received his first court title in 1477.

Mandarin Ducks and Hollyhocks

Mandarin Ducks and Hollyhocks

Lü Ji  (Chinese, active late 15th century)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 68 x 39 in. (172.7 x 99.1 cm) Overall with mounting: 116 1/4 x 40 1/4 in. (295.3 x 102.2 cm) Overall with knobs: 116 1/4 x 44 1/2 in. (295.3 x 113 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

 Gift of Oscar L. Tang Family, 2005

Lü Ji, a professional painter from Zhejiang Province, worked in the Southern Song (1127–1279) ink-wash style, which had remained popular in that region through the intervening centuries. He was summoned to be a court painter in the Hongzhi period (1488-1505) and was given an honorary title as an officer in the Imperial Guard.

The artist's paintings, done in a dashing, descriptive style highly regarded at court, were derided by Shen Zhou (1427–1509), the leading scholar-painter of the time, as being merely works "of the hand"; Shen considered his own calligraphic drawings to be products "of the heart." he contrast between the "hand" and the "heart" points up the presumed difference between the works of the "professional" artists and those of the "scholar-amateur" painters of the Ming period.

Autumn Landscape with Herons and Ducks

Autumn Landscape with Herons and Ducks

Lü Ji  (Chinese, active late 15th century)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 58 1/8 x 21 1/2 in. (147.6 x 54.6 cm) Overall with mounting: 106 1/4 x 27 1/2 in. (269.9 x 69.9 cm) Overall with knobs: 106 1/4 x 30 in. (269.9 x 76.2 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

 Bequest of Dorothy Graham Bennett, 1980

Fish at Play

Fish at Play

Attributed to Zhao Kexiong  (Chinese, active early 12th century)

Period:

Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)

Culture:

China

Medium:

Album leaf; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 8 7/8 x 9 7/8 in. (22.5 x 25.1 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

During the reign (1101–25) of Emperor Huizong, the cultivation of rare aquarium fish came into vogue, and playful, splashing fish in plant-filled waters became a popular subject. In the Xuanhe huapu (preface dated 1120), the catalogue of Huizong’s painting collection, the author of the essay "Fishes and Dragons” decries still-life representations of fish as “objects on a kitchen table” but praises pictures of fish that “play in the wide expanse and dive in the deep.” In Fish at Play, where six slim, nimble fish flip and weave through the grasses, the painter’s genius for suggesting life and movement by the graceful deployment of elegant, curving lines is fully in evidence. Flawlessly executed, the image is at once a metaphor for and a re-creation of natural life at its freest and most spontaneous.

The Pleasures of Fishes

The Pleasures of Fishes

Zhou Dongqing  (Chinese, active late 13th century)

Period:

Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)

Date:

dated 1291

Culture:

China

Medium:

Handscroll; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 12 1/8 x 19 ft 4 in. (30.8 cm x 593.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 12 5/8 x 441 3/4 in. (32.1 x 1122 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Zhou Dongqing was a friend of Wen Tianxiang (1236-1283), the famous Song loyalist and a fellow native of Jiangsi Province.

Zhou's painting was inspired by a passage from the Daoist classic Zhuangzi (ca. fourth century b.c.), in which Zhuangzi, strolling along a river, observes, "See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That's what fish really enjoy!" His companion Huizi remarks, "You're not a fish-how do you know what fish enjoy?" Zhuangzi replies, "You are not I, so how do you know I don't know what fish enjoy?"
In the inscription at the end of the painting the artist has written:

Not being fish, how do we know their happiness?
But we may express our feelings in our painting.
In order to probe the subtleties of the ordinary,
We must describe the indescribable.

Painted on paper instead of silk, the work's muted colors and flat patterns of pale ink wash evoke a mood of detachment and withdrawal, which Zhou's inscription reinforces. Born in Linjiang, not far from the Daoist center at Mount Longhu (Dragon Tiger Mountain), Zhou may have been strongly influenced by Daoism.

Finches and Bamboo

Finches and Bamboo

Emperor Huizong  (Chinese, 1082–1135; r. 1100–25)

Period:

Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)

Culture:

China

Medium:

Handscroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 13 1/4 x 21 3/4 in. (33.7 x 55.4 cm) Overall with mounting: 13 3/4 x 330 5/16 in. (34.9 x 839 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Huizong was the eighth emperor of the Song dynasty and the most artistically accomplished of his imperial line. Finches and Bamboo exemplifies the realistic style of flower-and-­bird painting practiced at Huizong’s academy. Whether making a study from nature or illustrating a line of poetry, however, the emperor valued capturing the spirit of a subject over literal representation. Here the minutely observed finches are imbued with the vitality of their living counterparts. Drops of lacquer added to the birds’eyes impart a final lifelike touch.

Sparrows, Plum Blossoms, and Bamboo

Sparrows, Plum Blossoms, and Bamboo

Unidentified Artist 

Period:

Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)

Date:

late 12th century

Culture:

China

Medium:

Fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 10 1/8 x 10 1/2 in. (25.7 x 26.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (39.4 x 39.4 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Crane in a Bamboo Grove

Crane in a Bamboo Grove

Unidentified Artist 

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

14th–early 15th century

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 65 5/16 x 39 11/16 in. (165.9 x 100.8 cm) Overall with mounting: 65 5/16 x 39 11/16 in. (165.9 x 100.8 cm) Overall with knobs: 118 1/4 x 49 1/2 in. (300.4 x 125.7 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

A favorite image in Chinese society and a familiar presence in imperial gardens as well as refined scholarly retreats, cranes were also renowned as the vehicles of Daoist immortals. Their long life span and loyalty to a single mate made them symbols of longevity and faithfulness. Here, a Manchurian crane, identified by its distinctive red forehead, strolls through a corner of the palace garden. Stopping in midstride and turning its head, the bird has just been startled by a branch of bamboo that has brushed against its tail feathers.

One of only a handful of such large-scale images of birds to survive from the late Yuan or early Ming dynasty, this painting derives its subject from a composition by the emperor Huizong (r. 1100–25), who painted a set of six cranes in different poses. The complex branch structure of the twisting bamboo and the intricate detail of the bird's plumage-with every filament of the feathers carefully delineated-reveal a level of naturalistic description that predates the more conventionalized images of cranes created by the Ming court painter Bian Wenjin (ca. 1354–1428).

Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion

Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion

Qian Gu  (Chinese, 1508–ca. 1578)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

datable to 1560

Culture:

China

Medium:

Handscroll; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 9 1/2 x 171 1/2 in. (24.1 x 435.6 cm) Overall with mounting: 9 3/4 x 491 3/8 in. (24.8 x 1248.1 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

In 353, the renowned calligrapher Wang Xizhi (307–365) and his friends met at the Orchid Pavilion (at Shanyin, in modern Zhejiang Province) to celebrate the spring festival of purification. Sitting by a stream, they held a poetry competition. When the time was up, eleven men had finished two poems, and fifteen had finished one; the sixteen who failed to come up with anything (among them, Wang’s son Xianzhi) were penalized by having to drink three additional cups of wine. In Qian Gu’s representation of this famous literary event, cups of wine float downstream as the poets, lined up on both sides, drink freely and struggle to complete their poems.

Orphaned at an early age, Qian Gu did not receive a formal education until adulthood, when he became a pupil of Wen Zhengming (1470–1559). This painting is modeled after a composition said to have been originated by Li Gonglin (ca. 1049–1106).