Portrait of Li T’ai-p’o

According to the inscription, the subject is the famous Tang dynasty poet Li Bo (701-762). Dressed in a flowing scholarly robe and a cap, he sits under a canopy of tree branches, holds a wine cup in one hand, and leans to one side with an elbow on a platform where we see a bronze wine vessel. The poet gazes languorously into space, perhaps inebriated. One of Li Bo’s most famous poems is “Drinking Alone by Moonlight:” Here among flowers one flask of wine, With no close friends, I pour it alone. I lift cup to bright moon, beg its company, Then facing my shadow, we become three. The moon has never known how to drink; My shadow does nothing but follow me. But with moon and shadow as companions the while, This joy I find must catch spring while it’s here.I sing, and the moon just lingers on;I dance, and my shadow flails wildly. When still sober we share friendship and pleasure, Then utterly drunk, each goes his own way- Let us join to roam beyond human cares And plan to meet far in the river of stars.