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Artwork Page for Nine Songs

Details / Information for Nine Songs

Nine Songs

九歌圖

1361

Zhang Wo 張渥

(Chinese, active c.1336–after 1364)

Chu Huan 褚奐

(Chinese, active 1361)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
handscroll, ink on paper
Overall: 28 x 438.2 cm (11 x 172 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1959.138
Location: not on view
Public Domain
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Did You Know?

Divided into eleven sections, the scroll contains illustrations by painter Zhang Wu followed by a transcription of the relevant verse by calligrapher Chu Huan.

Description

Painted in the baimiao, or fine-line drawing style, this ancient work demonstrates the literati’s use of abstract calligraphic brushwork for self-expression. The subject of the “Nine Songs”—songs associated with shamanistic rituals in the ancient Chu kingdom—had traditionally provided artists with myths and legends that they could explore and reinterpret in their own works.

Nine Songs

1361

Zhang Wo, Chu Huan

(Chinese, active c.1336–after 1364), (Chinese, active 1361)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)

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