Landscape of the four seasons

1635

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 210

Wei Zhike created this ambitious landscape, in which both seasons and styles change as the scroll unfurls, just a few years before the fall of the Ming dynasty. Nanjing painters of Wei’s time often depicted local sites, a reflection of the pride they and their patrons felt in the city’s millennia of history to conjure reminiscence and nostalgia. Sections of this scroll seem to resemble known locations, but as the artist did not identify them with inscriptions, the places have not been definitively identified.

Artwork Details

明　魏之克(魏克)　四時倣古山水圖　卷
Title: Landscape of the four seasons
Artist: Wei Zhike (Chinese, active ca. 1600–after 1636)
Period: Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Date: 1635
Culture: China
Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Overall with mounting: 12 5/8 in. × 38 ft. 10 in. (32.1 × 1183.6 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of J. T. Tai, 1968
Object Number: 68.195
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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