The Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a Raft
This bearded Chinese gentleman engaged in a most unlikely endeavor—white-water rafting—is Zhang Qian (Japanese: Chōken), a legendary explorer of the second century B.C. Zhang was immortalized in a Yuan-dynasty poem that tells of his riding a log raft to the source of the Yellow River, only to find himself floating in the Milky Way. This painting is one of the works most reliably attributed to Maejima Sōyū, a painter active in the Kantō region of eastern Japan.
Artwork Details
- 張騫図
- Title: The Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a Raft
- Artist: Maejima Sōyū (active mid-16th century)
- Period: Muromachi period (1392–1573)
- Date: mid-16th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 20 5/16 × 13 11/16 in. (51.6 × 34.7 cm)
Overall with knobs: 50 × 16 1/4 in. (127 × 41.3 cm)
Overall with mounting: 50 × 14 1/2 in. (127 × 36.8 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation Gift, 2002
- Object Number: 2002.3
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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