Swan

Artist/Culture Chinese

Daten.d.

Mediumsilk

Dimensionsimage: 117.2 × 87.8 cm (46 1/8 × 34 9/16 in.)
overall: 236.5 × 104.5 cm (93 1/8 × 41 1/8 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Miss Florance Waterbury

Object number1957.159

Label TextA motif such as this swan swooping down to alight on the riverbank would have been a small album leaf or a detail in a larger composition in Southern Song (1127-1279) painting. It is characteristic of Ming academic painting to transform this motif into the subject of a large hanging scroll. The format and materials of this painting were standard for Ming artists of academic bent as was the asymmetrical composition. The formula seen here with the bamboo at one side and across the bottom of the painting was followed by hundreds of bird and flower painters of the Ming. In the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries the Southern Song Academy style reached a point of classical equilibrium that established the canonical models for professional artists in all the centuries that followed. This professional tradition was never penetrated by the revolutionary attitudes of the Yuan (about 1280-1360) literati painters. Its conservative modes dominated Ming court painting circles and make up one of the mainstreams of Ming painting. ProvenanceMiss Florance Waterbury, New York NY

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