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.