A brilliant scholar whose official career was cut short by his inadvertent involvement in an examination scandal in 1499, Tang Yin spent his life pursuing the diversions of an eccentric scholarly playboy; his adventures eventually entered popular legend. While most of his paintings reflect a pleasure-loving existence, this melancholy album explores the themes of struggle, sadness, and the refuge of solitude.
While most of his fellow painters in the Suzhou area adopted the calligraphic styles of the Yuan scholar-artists, Tang was able to use the more descriptive ink-wash idiom of the Southern Song masters, particularly that of Li Tang (ca. 1070s–ca. 1150s), to portray realistic scenery. This series of leaves shows extraordinary subtlety in portraying the changing effects of weather and season as well as poetic and psychological moods.
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明 唐寅 詩畫 卷
Title:Landscapes
Artist:Tang Yin (Chinese, 1470–1524)
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Culture:China
Medium:Eight album leaves mounted as a handscroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image (All leaves): 12 3/4 x 162 7/8 in. (32.4 x 413.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 13 1/16 x 306 5/16 in. (33.2 x 778 cm) Image (Leaf 1): 12 3/4 x 17 in. (32.4 x 43.2 cm) Image (Leaf 2): 12 3/4 x 17 in. (32.4 x 43.2 cm) Image (Leaf 3): 12 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. (32.4 x 42.9 cm) Image (Leaf 4): 12 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. (32.4 x 42.5 cm) Image (Leaf 5): 12 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. (32.4 x 42.9 cm) Image (Leaf 6): 12 3/4 x 16 13/16 in. (32.4 x 42.7 cm) Image (Leaf 7): 12 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. (32.4 x 42.9 cm) Image (Leaf 8): 12 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. (32.4 x 42.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of Douglas Dillon, 1980
Accession Number:1980.81
Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures[1]
Leaf A (4 columns in semi-cursive script)
Xunyang need not be the end of the world, On both banks the wind is fresh among the flowering rushes. Who is the officer Bai [Bai Juyi 白居易, 772-846] on the boat Listening to the Pipa in mid-river by the bright moon?
Tang yin painted.
潯陽未必是天涯，兩岸風清蘆荻花。 誰是舟中白司馬，滿江明月聼琵琶。
唐寅畫。
Leaf B (5 columns in semi-cursive script)
Ten li of pines on a continuous encircling ridge, A small bright leading to a place deep in shade. Carrying my qin, I wish to pluck it and sing with friends, I am carefree as the wind on the clouds, endlessly.
Tang Yin of Jinchang [Suzhou]
匝塢連岡十里松，綠陰深處小橋通。 擕琴欲扣吟邊社，雲上風騷不可窮。
晉昌唐寅
Leaf C (5 columns in semi-cursive script)
The old trees are dense, covering the thatched cottage, A blue sky stretched over rivers and lakes without end. I sit quietly all day by the verandah- You should know that my mind is not upon the fish.
Tang Yin
古木深深覆草廬，江湖無際碧天舒。 臨軒盡日悠然坐，雅志應知不在魚。
唐寅
Leaf D (3 columns in semi-cursive script)
It is evening at the lonely temple on the empty mountain, Autumn at the rickety bridge over the ancient chasm. Worried, I rush on: Where is there an inn that I can stay at?
Tang Yin
蕭寺空山晚，危橋古澗秋。 愴惶行簇簇，何處店堪投。
唐寅
Leaf E (5 columns in semi-cursive script)
Torrents of driving and flying rain: Being fearful at heart, my road becomes more difficult. Vaguely I make out a distant bank And rejoice that it is Huang’s home.
Tang Yin
狼藉驚飛雨，心危路轉賒。 帘搖見遠浦，懽喜是黃家。
唐寅
Leaf F (4 columns in semi-cursive script)
Wild water, a deserted house, an air of solitude; In the depths of the hills but few guests come visiting. Birds call, about to rest, as the clouds and mist darken, A pair of autumn leaves fall in the west wind.
Tang Yin
野水荒亭氣象幽，山深應少客來遊。 啼禽欲歇煙霞瞑，一對西風落葉秋。
唐寅
Leaf G (5 columns in semi-cursive script)
Among the red trees white clouds fly, The slanting sun is cut off below the brown thatched eaves. Here indeed is a carefree solitary place. Since it is difficult to speak to you I make a painting for you.
Tang Yin
紅樹中間飛白雲，黃茅簷底界斜曛。 此中大有消遙處，難說於君畫與君。
唐寅
Leaf H (4 columns in semi-cursive script)
The cold snow comes early in the morning with a biting north wind, The thousand mountains are covered with jade furong [white lotus]. Although deep in wine I still feel ice forming on my leg, How is it then that there are footprints of a guest on the bridge over the stream?
1. Leaf C (4 columns in standard script, undated; 1 double seal):
Autumn colors have come thickly to the thatched house. In the morning patched of new frost can be seen on a few leaves. The man of dao enjoys the flavor of his idleness- When he awakes from his nap and spreads out his books, the evening sun is bright.
[Wen] Zhengming inscribed. [Seal]: Zheng/ming
龝色離離到草堂，早看疏葉點新霜。 道人自得蕭閒味，睡*攤書映夕陽。起
徵明題。 [印]：徵、明
2. Leaf F (4 columns in standard script, undated; 1 double seal):
The evening sun slowly declines along the river bank, The west wind blows chilly over the lake waters. This is the very place where a poet finds his poems, A trace of mountain scenery falls on the man singing in the saddle.
[Wen] Zhengming inscribed. [Seal]: Zheng/ming
夕陽緩轡傍江干，湖水西風颯颯寒。 正是詩翁詩就*，一痕山色落吟鞍。處
徵明題。 [印]：徵、明
Label Strip
Unidentified artist, 1 column in semi-cursive script, dated dinghai year:
明唐伯虎詩畫圖卷神品，文衡山題識。丁亥冬宣閣署。
Frontispiece
Wen Zhengming 文徵明 (1470–1559), 4 large characters in clerical script followed by 1 column in semi-cursive script, undated; 2 seals:
At the right are [works from] Tang Ziwei’s [Tang Yin’s] brush. Ziwei’s ideas are lofty, his brush carefree… [one or two characters missing] [so that] by his works he stands in a school of his own. I have not seen copies [of older compositions] by him before: this album alone does not come from his own ideas, following ancient men in its entirety, yet it is not stiff and slow, like those who frown and fail to make a transformation in their copies of ancient [paintings]. Truly, among all the gentlemen in China, there is none who can surpass him. In the Jiajing reign, the year wuzi [1528], the fourth month, Wen Zhengming wrote at Yuqing Shanfang. [Seals]: Wen Zhengming yin, Hengshan, Tingyun
Di Xuegeng 狄學耕 (1820–1899) Liyang Di Xuegeng zi Mannong yizi Jiasheng 溧陽狄學耕字曼農一字稼生(frontispiece) Zhongshi Xuan 種石軒 (frontispiece) Mannong pingsheng zhenshang 曼農平生真賞 Shihao yu su shu suanxian 嗜好與俗殊酸咸
Mu Si 穆思 (Earl Morse, 1908–1988) Mu Si shoucang mingji 穆思收藏名跡(leaf H) Mu Si zhencang (twice) 穆思珍藏(leaf A, colophon by Wen Zhengming)
Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C. C. Wang, 1907–2003) Zhenze Wang shi Baowu Tang tushu ji 震澤王氏寳武堂圖書記 (colophon by Wen Zhengming) Jiqian zhencang 季遷珍藏 (Leaf F, E, D, C, B, A) Baowu Tang 寳武堂 (frontispiece) Zhenze Wang shi Jiqian shoucang yin震澤王氏季遷收藏印 (between frontispiece and Leaf A) Huaiyun Lou jianshang shuhua zhi ji懷雲樓鑒賞書畫之記 (between frontispiece and Leaf A)
Wu Chengde 吳承德 (Unidentified) Wu Chengde yin 吳承德印 (Leaf B, C, H) Chengde 承德 (Leaf A, D, E, F)
[1] Translations from Roderick Whitfield, In Pursuit of Antiquity: Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Morse. Exh. cat. Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1969, cat. no. 2, pp. 57-59. Modified.
Mr. and Mrs. Earl Morse , New York (by 1969–76; sold to Dillon);; Douglas Dillon American, New York (until 1980; donated to MMA)
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