Artwork Page for Bamboo in the Wind

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Bamboo in the Wind

風竹圖

1300s

Puming (Xuechuang) 普明（雪窗）

(Chinese, active before 1274–after 1329)
Culture
China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink on silk
Measurements
Painting: 77.6 x 45.7 cm (30 9/16 x 18 in.); Overall with knobs: 209.5 x 75.5 cm (82 1/2 x 29 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1953.246
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Bamboo, pine, and plum, often referred to as the "three friends of winter," are popular motifs in Chinese literati art.

Description

Bamboo is an evergreen plant that does not break under the weight of snow or the force of the wind, and thus became a favorite motif in literati painting and Chan Buddhism as a metaphor for the virtue of not yielding to worldly temptations.

Xuechuang, also known as monk Puming, was a native of Songjiang, near Shanghai, who spent his life as a monk in Suzhou. In 1338, he presided over Yunyan temple on Tiger Hill. Here, he masterfully depicts a bamboo gently bent in a subtle breeze. Puming’s paintings were revered in Japan and Korea.
A hanging scroll in black ink on brown silk depicts bamboo curving from the lower left toward the upper right. Dark, pointed leaves cluster at the ends of thin stalks, while a large, textured rock anchors the lower right. Slender grasses and delicate orchids sprout from behind the rock's rough edges. On the center-left, vertical Chinese calligraphy is positioned between two red seal marks against the silk background.

Bamboo in the Wind

1300s

Puming (Xuechuang)

(Chinese, active before 1274–after 1329)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)

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