Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Wang Wei’s “Peach Blossom Spring”
Calligrapher Hongren Chinese
Not on view
明/清 弘仁 行楷書王維桃源行 扇面 紙本
As a painter, the monk-artist Hongren was celebrated for his images of Yellow Mountain (Huangshan), which used austere dry lines to capture a sense of the strange majesty of that landscape. He was less influential as a calligrapher, but he developed a charming and recognizable style that combined tall, occasionally boxy character forms with sinuous lines. The text is Wang Wei’s (699–761) poetic variation on Tao Yuanming’s (365–427) beloved “Peach Blossom Spring,” an allegorical tale of paradise found and lost.
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