Wu Zhen, Fishermen, After Jing Hao (Poem)
This landscape handscroll is over eighteen feet long. It is painted in monochrome ink. As one opens and reads the painting from right to left, sixteen fishermen boating on a river appear one by one. Only four of them attempt to fish at all. The rest are busy sleeping, drifting, or simply enjoying the scenery […]
Chinese Painting
By Maxwell Hearn The Chinese way of appreciating a painting is often expressed by the words du hua, “to read a painting.” How does one do that? Consider Night-Shining White by Han Gan (1977.78), an image of a horse. Originally little more than a foot square, it is now mounted as a handscroll that is […]
Chinese Painting, Appreciation of This Art
By Maxwell Hearn Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Chinese way of appreciating a painting is often expressed by the words du hua, “to read a painting.” How does one do that? Consider Night-Shining White by Han Gan (1977.78), an image of a horse. Originally little more than a foot square, […]