Wang Xizhi Watching Geese
Item
-
Title
-
Wang Xizhi Watching Geese
-
Description
-
After the fall of Hangzhou, the Southern Song capital, in 1276, the artist Qian Xuan chose to live as an yimin, a “leftover subject” of the dynasty. Painted in his deliberately primitive “blue-and-green” style, this handscroll illustrates the story of Wang Xizhi ( 303 – 361), the calligraphy master of legendary fame and a practitioner of Daoist alchemy, who was said to derive inspiration from natural forms such as the graceful neck movements of geese. In creating a dreamlike evocation of antiquity, the artist prevented a realistic reading of his picture space as a way of asserting the disjuncture he felt after the fall of the Song royal house.
-
Date
-
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
-
Format
-
Image: 9 1/8 x 36 1/2 in. (23.2 x 92.7 cm)
-
Overall with mounting: 11 x 418 13/16 in. (27.9 x 1063.8 cm)
-
Contributor
-
C. C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973
