The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Ink Flowers

Ink Flowers

1361
(Chinese, second half of the 1300s)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
Handscroll; ink on paper
Overall: 31.8 x 153.2 cm (12 1/2 x 60 5/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1967.36
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This handscroll is a very rare example of ink flowers in the linear baimiao style of the fourteenth century.

Description

Zhao Zhong's flowers, each paired with a poem, echo the fine-style colored flowers of the academic tradition, but instead he used only ink. Fine lines define the contours of each plant, as well as the veins within each petal and leaf. Careful ink washes give subtle modeling to the forms.

The combination of lily, narcissus, and peony is unusual as the three belong to no known seasonal or symbolic system popular in the fourteenth century. Zhao’s medical training may have influenced the selection. Powdered lilies, for example, were prescribed to dispel grief, while the bark of tree peony roots was used as a treatment for various blood disorders.
  • Li Guochao 李國超 [20th century]
    Cheng Qi 程琦 [1911–1988], to his son, Stephen O. K. Chen
    ?–1967
    (Stephen O. K. Chen [20th century], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1967–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Tō Sō Gen Min meigaten-gō [唐宋元明名画展号]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun Hakkōjo, 1928. p. 42
    Xie, Zhiliu 谢稚柳. Tang wu dai song yuan ming ji 唐五代宋元名迹. Shanghai: Gu dian wen xue chu ban she 古典文学出版社, 1957. Reproduced: no. 35, pl. 107
    “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 10, 1967, pp. 302–346. Mentioned: p. 346, no. 157; Reproduced: p. 334 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968. cat. no. 183
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 262 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman. “To See Big within Small: Hsiao-Chung-Chien-Ta.” The Burlington Magazine 114, no. 830 (May 1972): 312+314-323. Reproduced: p. 318, fig. 58 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. Reproduced: cat. no. 20, p. 113, pp. 62-63
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 346 archive.org
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 72, pp. 91-92
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 78-79
    Shanghai bo wu guan. Han mo hui cui: xi du Meiguo cang Zhongguo Wu dai Song Yuan shu hua zhen pin [翰墨薈萃: 细读美国藏中国五代宋元书画珍品 = Masterpieces of early Chinese painting and calligraphy in American collections]. Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2012. Reproduced: cat no. 52, pp. 483-491.
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 154–156
    Xie, Zhiliu 谢稚柳. Tang Wu dai Song Yuan ming ji 唐五代宋元名迹. Shanghai: Shanghai ren min chu ban she, 2018. Reproduced: pp. 209–211
  • Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections. Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (organizer) (November 1, 2012-January 3, 2013).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 11, 2003-July 13, 2004).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).
    Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 24, 1968).
    Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).
    To-So-Gen-Min, II. Tokyo Imperial Museum, Tokyo, Japan (November 24-December 16, 1928).
  • {{cite web|title=Ink Flowers|url=false|author=Zhao Zhong|year=1361|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1967.36