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).

Discourse on Poetry

Discourse on Poetry

Gao Jian  (Chinese, 1634–after 1715)

Calligrapher:

You Tong (Chinese, 1618–1704)

Calligrapher:

Song Zhi (Chinese, active 17th–18th century)

Period:

Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Date:

dated 1698

Culture:

China

Medium:

Handscroll; ink on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 13 11/16 x 35 7/16 in. (34.8 x 90 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Gardens were often designed to embody the ideals of their owners. Paintings of gardens could take even greater license in conveying a man’s character by constructing symbols and metaphors drawn from elements of the natural environment. That is surely the case with this painting by the Suzhou artist Gao Jian.

The painting was made to accompany a treatise on Chinese poetry by the renowned scholar-official and collector Song Luo (1634–1713). In it, Gao presents an idealized evocation of Song composing his discourse in a garden pavilion. Rejecting bright color and representational verisimilitude, Gao renders his simplified, almost naive vision of the garden in a spare, “dry brush” monochrome style that emphasizes the painting’s role as a “portrait” rather than a literal description of the scholar’s surroundings. The majestic pines, dense grove of bamboo, and tranquil lotus pond may all be read as metaphors for Song’s lofty character, moral virtue, and detached state of mind.

The sparse foreground and meticulous brushwork exemplify the Suzhou School of painting, from which Gao derived his style. Framed by a bold seal-script frontispiece and Song’s treatise, transcribed in formal standard-script calligraphy by Song’s son, the scroll unites poetry, painting, and calligraphy in a quintessential work of early Qing literati culture.

Wangchuan Villa

Wangchuan Villa

Wang Yuanqi  (Chinese, 1642–1715)

Period:

Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Date:

dated 1711

Culture:

China

Medium:

Handscroll; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 14 in. x 17 ft. 10 3/4 in. (35.6 x 545.5 cm) Overall with mounting: 14 3/8 in. x 34 ft. 7 1/2 in. (36.5 x 1055.4 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

The elegant Wangchuan Villa situated in the picturesque hills on the outskirts of the Tang dynasty (618–907) capital, Chang'an (modern Xi'an), is one of the most famous gardens of ancient China. The rambling estate with spectacular scenery was the retreat of the poet, musician, and landscape painter Wang Wei (699–759). Almost one thousand years later, Wang Yuanqi used a rubbing of a Wangchuan composition etched into stone in 1617 for the general outlines of his painting and referred to Wang Wei's poems to guide his inspiration. In a colophon appended to the painting, Wang Yuanqi expresses satisfaction that he has captured some of Wang Wei's idea of "painting in poetry and poetry in painting."

Tutored in painting by his grandfather Wang Shimin (1592–1680), Wang Yuanqi followed the lead of Dong Qichang (1555–1636), the first artist to transform landscape structure in painting by means of abstract compositional movements known as "breath force" (qishi). Inspired by the archaic convention of ringed mountain motifs in the engraving, Wang Yuanqi created "dragon veins" (longmo), through which the cosmic "breath force" vigorously flows. Calligraphic brush formulas suddenly become torrents of writhing, churning rock forms, rising and falling like waves.

Garden of the Inept Administrator

Garden of the Inept Administrator

Wen Zhengming  (Chinese, 1470–1559)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

dated 1551

Culture:

China

Medium:

Album of eight painted leaves with facing leaves inscribed with poems; ink on paper

Dimensions:

Image (each leaf): 10 3/8 x 10 3/4 in. (26.4 x 27.3 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

The Garden of the Inept Administrator (Zhuozheng Yuan) was built on the site of an ancient temple in Suzhou by the censor Wang Xianchen (act. ca. 1500–1535). In 1527, after an unhappy stay in Beijing, the artist Wen Zhengming returned to Suzhou, where he was given a studio in the garden. In an album of 1535, Wen painted thirty-one views of the site, each accompanied by a poem and a descriptive note. Sixteen years later, at the age of eighty-one, he painted this second album of eight views. The garden still exists in Suzhou, but centuries of renovations make it difficult to identify Wen's scenes. 

In these works Wen achieved the ideal integration of the three separate arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting (the so-called three perfections). With characteristic restraint, he chose to use only ink, but, aided by the poems, the quiet and exquisite images easily evoke that magical, autumnal moment in the garden.

High Mountains

High Mountains

Hou Maogong  (Chinese, active ca. 1540–1580)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

dated 1569

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 46 5/8 x 11 in. (118.4 x 27.9 cm) Overall with mounting: 78 3/4 x 17 in. (200 x 43.2 cm) Overall with knobs: 78 3/4 x 20 1/2 in. (200 x 52.1 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Hou Mougong was a student of both Wen Zhengming (1470–1559) and Qian Gu (1508–1574). Inscriptions on his surviving works, ranging in date from 1544 to 1577, show that he was also on intimate terms with Wen's sons, Wen Peng (1498–1573) and Wen Jia (1501–1583), as well as with other members of the Suzhou artistic circle. High Mountains has the narrow format, pastel coloration, and attenuated figures, trees, and rocks that are typical of late-Wen-school landscape paintings. Hou's works are considered rare

Landscape Dedicated to Xiang Yuanbian

Landscape Dedicated to Xiang Yuanbian

Wen Jia  (Chinese, 1501–1583)

Period:

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date:

dated 1578

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 46 1/4 x 15 11/16 in. (117.5 x 39.8 cm) Overall with mounting: 90 3/4 x 23 3/8 in. (230.5 x 59.4 cm) Overall with knobs: 90 3/4 x 26 in. (230.5 x 66 cm)

Classification:

Paintings