River Village in Autumn Dawn

Zhao Lingrang

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Zhao Lingrang (also known as Zhao Danian), a scion of the Song imperial family, was forbidden by dynastic statutes to travel any distance from the capital; he therefore painted mostly intimate, local, suburban scenery. As a collector, Zhao learned painting by studying ancient masterworks rather than the often wild nature of northern China, as did his great contemporaries such as Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090). Turning his limitations into a virtue, Zhao strove to capture the mood of single lyrical moments with all their particular qualities, thereby presaging the more intimate "mind landscapes" of the Southern Song and Yuan periods.

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