Bamboo in a spring thunderstorm
After Tang Yin Chinese
Not on view
This fan purports to be by the Ming dynasty artist Tang Yin (with a spurious date of 1522), but the brushwork of the painting and the calligraphy indicate that it is a copy by an artist of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, it is a fine example of bamboo painting, in which multiple tones of ink have been used to suggest depth among the leaf-laden stalks. The poem describes a spring thunderstorm that stirs bamboo before giving way to a clear, moonlit night:
The crash of spring thunder sets the lush bamboo moving,
Sweeping the ground with its dragon whiskers and long phoenix tails.
Looking up from below the curtain I play my flute,
The bright moon fills the sky, shining on the Xiao and Xiang Rivers.
—Translation by Richard M. Barnhart
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