Flowers in Rain through the Four Stages of Meditation
Xugu (Zhu Huairen) Chinese
Not on view
Four clusters of flowers—orchid, chrysanthemum, narcissus, and peony—hover on this scroll as if emerging from a dense mist. This is one of the earliest extant paintings by Xugu, a scholar of the late Qing dynasty who first pursued a career as a military officer before retreating to life in and around Buddhist monasteries. Xu’s late works are known for nervous, fractured lines, but this piece shows his mastery of the “boneless” technique, in which washes of color are applied without bounding lines. The flowers may symbolize a seasonal progression from summer to spring, but the scholar Cheng Songwan, who gave the painting its title frontispiece, saw a Buddhist significance.
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