Bottle with Peony Scroll

The structured surface of this bottle ultimately derives from the Islamic cultures of West Asia. The designs painted on the surface of the bottle also illustrate the complicated ties between China and other regions in the fourteenth century: the patterns on the neck parallel the cloud-collar designs often found in textiles and clothing in China […]
Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo)

Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo), c. 1319, Yuan dynasty, water-based pigments on clay mixed with straw, 24 feet, 8 inches x 49 feet 7 inches / 751.8 cm x 1511.3 cm (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Speakers: Dr. Jennifer N. McIntire and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Style in Chinese Landscape Painting: The Yuan Legacy

A tradition dating to the third century, landscape painting is one of the most outstanding achievements of Chinese culture. Key styles in this genre emerged during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) and are still followed today. This exhibition presented six important styles, including five new ones developed by individual Yuan masters and a continuation of an […]
Xie Chufang, Fascination of Nature, Handscroll

This is a rare example of a signed and dated painting from the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). The subject matter is that of animals and insects feeding off each other. A toad lies in wait for ants, which in turn are dismembering a butterfly; a dragonfly attacks a smaller insect which the lizard is hunting, and […]
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 […]
Ni Zan, A Branch of Bamboo

In this painting, the artist Ni Zan (1306–1374) chooses a simple and clean arrangement: the diagonal composition. A stem of bamboo is silhouetted against a plain background and ascends from the lower left corner to the upper right corner in a slight arc. The branches are light and sketchy. The leaves, stretching outward and upward, […]