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Living Aloft

1543
Not on view
Wen Zhengming painted Living Aloft for his friend Liu Lin (1474–1561), who, at the age of seventy, had retired from government service but had not yet built a home suitable for his new life. Wen's painting presents an idealized vision of life in retirement: separated from the outside world by a stream and a rustic wall, two friends enjoy each other's company in a two-story hall that is further isolated in a tall grove of trees. Wen elaborates on the pleasures of such a life in his accompanying poem:

Immortals have always delighted in pavilion-living,
Windows open on eight sides-eyebrows smiling.
Up above towers and halls well up,
Down below, clouds and thunder are vaguely sensed.
Reclining on a dais, a glimpse of Japan,
Leaning on a balustrade, the sight of Manchuria.
While worldly affairs shift and change,
In their midst a lofty man is at ease.

(After Ling-yün Shih Liu, trans., in Richard Edwards et al., The Art of Wen Cheng-ming [1470–1559] [Ann Arbor: Museum of Art, University of Michigan, 1976], p. 150)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 明 文徵明 樓居圖 軸
  • Title: Living Aloft
  • Artist: Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470–1559)
  • Period: Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
  • Date: 1543
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 37 1/2 x 18 in. (95.3 x 45.7 cm)
    Overall with mounting: 82 1/8 x 25 1/4 in. (208.6 x 64.1 cm)
    Overall with knobs: 82 1/8 x 29 5/8 in. (208.6 x 75.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill, in honor of Wen C. Fong, 2015
  • Object Number: 2017.327.2
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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Poem on Strolling in the Moonlight, Wen Zhengming Chinese, Album of thirty-two pages; ink on paper, China
Poem on Strolling in the Moonlight
Wen Zhengming
dated 1543
Recluse playing the zither in a pine grove, Wen Zhengming Chinese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, China
Recluse playing the zither in a pine grove
Wen Zhengming
ca. 1540
Letter to the artist’s father-in-law, Wu Yu, Wen Zhengming Chinese, Album leaf; ink on patterned paper, China
Letter to the artist’s father-in-law, Wu Yu
Wen Zhengming
datable to 1506–10
Three Poems, Wen Zhengming Chinese, Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on gold-flecked paper, China
Three Poems
Multiple artists/makers
Old pine, Wen Zhengming Chinese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, China
Old pine
Wen Zhengming
mid-16th century

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