The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

A Hundred Birds and the Three Friends

A Hundred Birds and the Three Friends

1400–1425
(Chinese, about 1354–1428)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Painting: 153.5 x 95.4 cm (60 7/16 x 37 9/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 245 x 110 cm (96 7/16 x 43 5/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1980.12
Location: not on view

Description

In this hanging scroll birds rest and frolic among pines, bamboo, and flowering plum, plants known as “the three friends.” Due to their endurance in winter, they symbolize perseverance and friendship in adverse times. The naturalistic depiction of the birds refers to the bird-and-flower painting tradition of the Art Academy of the Song dynasty.

The painter Bian Wenjin served at the court of the Ming dynasty Yongle Emperor (reigned 1402–24). This painting may have been hung in a private studio or palace hall on appropriate occasions.
  • ?-1980
    (Kozo Yabumoto 藪本公三, Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1980-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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. 121, pp. 145–146
    Barnhart, Richard M., Mary Ann Rogers, and Richard Stanley-Baker. Painters of the Great Ming: The Imperial Court and the Zhe School. Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: cat. no. 19, p. 62
    Elliott, Jeannette Shambaugh. The Odyssey of China's Imperial Art Treasures. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2007. pp. 42–43
    Sung, Hou mei 宋后楣. Research on the Depiction of Tiger and Magpies [虎鵲圖研究 = Hu que tu yan jiu]. Taipei: National Taiwan University, Institute of Art History 國立臺灣大學藝術史研究所, 2015. Reproduced: p. 136, no. 5
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: p. 231, fig. 1
    Spee, Clarissa von. "From the SIlk Road to the Imperial Court: Chinese Textiles in the Cleveland Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 48, no. 3 (May-June 2018): 50-56. Reproduced: p. 55, fig. 9
    Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 172, fig. 99
  • Flora and Fauna (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2020-June 6, 2021).
    Chinese Gallery 240a Rotation – August 2016. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 1, 2016-February 6, 2017).
    Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=A Hundred Birds and the Three Friends|url=false|author=Bian Wenjin|year=1400–1425|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.12