In sixteenth-century China, courtesans played an active role in elite society. Extensive literary education was relatively rare among women, and even those fortunate enough to receive it almost never had the chance to display their gifts in public. Courtesans, by contrast, were celebrated for their talents in literature, painting, and music, and they participated in scholarly gatherings. Ma Shouzhen was one of the most famous of these; she mixed freely with the literary luminaries of Suzhou and Nanjing and carried on a long-term romance with the poet Wang Zhideng. Because of her fame, Ma’s paintings were much copied; this is likely one such homage, made in the generation or two after her death.
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明 傳 馬守真 蘭石圖 軸
Title:Orchid and rock
Artist:Attributed to Ma Shouzhen (Chinese, 1548–1604)
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Date:dated 1572
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions:Image: 20 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (52.7 x 29.2 cm) Image (with inscription): 27 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. (70.2 x 29.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 81 1/2 x 18 3/4 in. (207 x 47.6 cm) Overall with knobs: 81 1/2 x 23 in. (207 x 58.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Edward Elliott Family Collection, Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1982
Object Number:1982.1.7
Inscription: Artist's inscription and signature (3 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1572)
Green shadows brushing over the Xiang River, Pure fragrance permeating the secluded valley.
Executed in a small studio by the Qinghuai River [in Nanjing] in the fourth lunar month of the renshen year (1572). [Signed] Xianglanzi, Xuanxuan, Ma Shouzhen
翠影拂湘江，清芬瀉幽谷。 壬申清和寫於秦淮小閣。湘蘭子玄玄馬守真
Artist's seals
Xianglan 湘蘭 Yuejiao 月嬌
Other inscriptions on the painting
1. Xue Mingyi 薛明益 (1563–after 1640), 3 columns in standard script, undated; 1 seal:
空谷幽蘭茂，無人亦自芳。 迎春舒秀色，浥露發清香。
薛明益題。 [印]：薛氏虞卿
2. Wang Zhideng王穉登 (1535–1612), 3 columns in semi-cursive script, undated; 1 seal:
[ David L. Elliott , West Palm Beach, FL, until 1981; sold to MMA]
Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912," September 3, 1988–November 6, 1988.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912," December 5, 1988–January 15, 1989.
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. "Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912," February 13, 1989–April 2, 1989.
Washington DC. National Museum of Women in the Arts. "Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912," April 24, 1989–June 4, 1989.
Hong Kong Museum of Art. "Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912," June 29, 1989–August 27, 1989.
New York. China House Gallery. "Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912," October 5, 1989–December 2, 1989.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Learning to Paint in Premodern China," February 18, 2023–January 7, 2024.
Toda Teisuke 戶田禎佑, and Ogawa Hiromitsu 小川祐充, eds. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings: vol.1: American and Canadian Collections) 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1998, p. 62, cat. no. A1-253.
Lu Rongzhi 陸蓉之. Taiwan dangdai nüxing yishushi 臺灣當代女性藝術史(History of contemporary women artists in Taiwan) Taipei: Yishujia chubanshe, 2002, p. 8, fig. 31.
Shikibu Terutada (Japanese, active mid–16th century)
mid-16th century
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