Peony

Zhao Zhiqian

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Zhao Zhiqian focused his commitment to calligraphic brushwork upon the genre of flower painting. Such images, with their sumptuous colors and symbolic associations with beauty, prosperity, and good fortune, appealed to the tastes of the new urban consumer. Zhao often painted on folding fans, a format popular during the later Ming and Qing dynasties, when fans became fashionable accoutrements for gentlemen. Peony, an image that connotes material prosperity and good fortune, introduces the boldness and simplicity of seal carving and early stone-carved scripts to painting. The forms of the blossom, leaves, and stem are artfully integrated with the curving shape of the fan.

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