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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan
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Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State (detail 1, 2, 3), Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
Attributed to Li Tang (ca. 1070s–ca. 1150s)
Chinese
Handscroll; ink and color on silk; 11 5/8 x 325 5/8 in. (29.5 x 827 cm)
Ex Coll.: C. C. Wang Family
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 (1973.120.2)
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Description
An important example of early "history painting," Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State illustrates episodes from the life of Chonger of the state of Jin, who, after spending nineteen years in exile, returned to Jin as Duke Wen (r. 636–628 B.C.) to dominate the other feudal princes. This triumphant story of political recovery was used by the first Southern Song emperor, Gaozong, who had been a hostage of the Jurchen Jin before he escaped to reestablish the Song court in the south at Hangzhou. As emperor, he sponsored a number of narrative painting and calligraphy projects extolling the virtues and legitimacy of his "dynastic revival."
Zhou Mi (1232–1298) ascribed the painting to Li Tang and the text to Gaozong. This version of the story of Duke Wen follows the Zuojuan account of about the second century B.C. The drawing of the figures shows the influence of Li Gonglin (ca. 1041–1106), while the modeling of the rocks suggests the method of Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090), the great landscapist of Henan Province whom Li Tang must have known in his youth.
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