Listening to the Zither Among Streams and Pines

Xie Shichen

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Xie Shichen was a versatile artist whose paintings share features of both the Zhe School professionals and the Suzhou scholar-artists. Xie's "hemp-fiber" texture strokes and dark foliage dots derive from the eminent Suzhou amateur Shen Zhou (1427–1509), but his monumental composition, narrative subject matter, and bold brushwork owe more to the Nanjing professional Wu Wei (1459–1508). In this painting, a pair of scholars on a spring outing have paused to admire a blossoming plum tree that grows beneath the sheltering branches of an ancient pine. The nearby mountain torrent flows out of a deep valley where dense white clouds obscure the lower halves of precipitous peaks, including the towering central monolith whose position along the painting's vertical axis serves as an anchor to the entire composition. To the left of the peak, Xie inscribed a seven-character quatrain along with his signature.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art