Identified by his full beard, Laozi is the quasi-historical author of the seminal Daoist text Dao de jing (The Way and Its Power). In addition to its sumptuous gilding and sensitive presentation, this sculpture is remarkable for its long inscription on the underside of the pendant robe indicating that it was commissioned by an official from a northwestern frontier city for his mother in the Ming capital, Nanjing.
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明早期 陳彥清造鎏金銅老子像
Title:Daoist immortal Laozi
Artist:Chen Yanqing (active 15th century)
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Date:1438
Culture:China
Medium:Gilt copper alloy
Dimensions:H. 7 1/2 in. (19 cm); W. 4 3/4 in. (12 cm); D. 2 3/4 in. (7 cm)
Classification:Metalwork
Credit Line:Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 1997
Object Number:1997.139
Inscription: On the underside of the front section of the robe is a long inscription, which has not been totally erased. The name of the donor is no longer legible, but the place name, the maker and date can all be read.
[ J. J. Lally & Co. , New York, until 1997; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting, Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," August 28, 2004–February 20, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Brush: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy," March 12–August 14, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Secular and Sacred: Scholars, Deities, and Immortals in Chinese Art," September 10, 2005–January 8, 2006.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "La Voie du Tao, un autre chemin de l'être," March 29, 2010–June 28, 2010.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Children to Immortals: Figural Representations in Chinese Art," August 9, 2018–January 3, 2021.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900," February 27, 2025–September 28, 2025.
Shanghai Museum. "Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900," November 12, 2025–March 16, 2026.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Friends of Asian Art Gifts 1985–2007. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 19, 42.
Art & Collection 314 (November 2018). pp. 132–37, fig. 12.
Pengliang Lu. Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025, pp. 228–29, 283, fig. 146.
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The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.
