Artwork Page for Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE)

Details / Information for Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE)

Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE)

遠望南山

1200s–1400s

China, Ming dynasty (1368-1644) or earlier

Medium
Album leaf; ink and color on silk
Measurements
Diameter: 25.7 cm (10 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1915.702
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

The archaic vessels and qin, or seven-stringed zither, on the table allude to the gentleman-scholar’s cultural refinement.

Description

Poet Tao Yuanming (365–427 CE) turned down a civil service career in politically turbulent times to write poetry and enjoy his garden. In his poem Drinking Wine, he wrote: "I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, and serenely I gaze at the southern mountains." His desire to leave bureaucratic life for the simplicity and authenticity of nature has deeply resonated with generations of Chinese scholars, making it a popular theme in paintings.
A circular ink and color painting on silk depicts blue-green craggy rocks and a wooden fence in the lower third, people with light skin tone and a central body of water in the middle, and distant mountains across the upper background. On the right, Tao Yuanming leans against a rock under a pine tree, facing an attendant at a table on the left. Fine lines and washes define the scene.

Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE)

1200s–1400s

China, Ming dynasty (1368-1644) or earlier

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