Women and children in a garden
Women and children gather in an elegant garden setting surrounded by a lotus pond in full blossom. The opening scene centers on a pair of women playing the board game weiqi in a waterside pavilion. Toward the end of the scroll, a second vignette shows a woman readying to play a zither prepared by her attendant. Weiqi and music are two of the “four perfections,” a set of abilities considered de rigeur for the scholarly elite. Presumably, the scroll once contained vignettes featuring the other two—calligraphy and painting—that have been lost.
Artwork Details
- 明 佚名 舊傳周昉 閑庭仕女圖 卷
- Title: Women and children in a garden
- Artist: Unidentified artist , 16th or 17th century
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Culture: China
- Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: 16 1/8 in. × 10 ft. 1 in. (41 × 307.3 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1913
- Object Number: 13.220.2
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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