Object Details
Artist
Xiang Shengmo
Date
early 17th century
Medium
Hanging scroll: ink on paper
Dimensions
35 1/2 x 18 inches (90.2 x 45.7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Professor Harold Shadick
Object
Number
71.115
The inscription reads:Forest trees, luxuriant and pure, don shadowsWinds and mists buffet the depth (…)
The inscription reads:Forest trees, luxuriant and pure, don shadowsWinds and mists buffet the depth of the Five LakesMy home seems to be in dwelling upon the Five LakesOnly in a small boat, not following the common wayXiang Shengmo was the grandson of the great Ming dynasty collector and connoissseur Xiang Yuanbian, whose personal collection of ancient Chinese paintings was unmatched in his time for both quality and quantity. As a consequence of such exposure to great masterpieces of the past, Xiang Shengmo’s paintings have much of the “flavor of the ancients” so greatly admired in the late Ming period. This landscape follows in the style of the Yuan dynasty master Ni Zan (1301-1374).The poem’s reference to dwelling in a boat (a metaphor for a world away from human society) may also be a reference to Ni’s life, since the Yuan painter spent the latter part of his life as a lone wanderer in a small houseboat.
