Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Stele on Ritual Implements
Calligrapher He Shaoji Chinese
Not on view
何紹基 隸書 禮器碑 軸 紙本
This work is a direct homage to an early stone inscription, known as the “Stele on Ritual Implements” (Liqi bei), written in A.D. 156, that was considered by many Epigraphic School calligraphers to be the greatest ancient example of this script type. Here, the scholar-calligrapher He Shaoji transcribes a portion of this stele, enlarging the characters and spreading them over six scrolls to create an impressive work of art for a large, public setting. The “Stele on Ritual Implements” was one of He Shaoji’s favorite inscriptions, and when he wrote this at the age of seventy-one, he probably knew the text so well that he did not need to consult the original.
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