Portrait of Emperor Shennong

Kano Tan'yū

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Seasonal landscapes in a Chinese style evoking summer and winter flank an imaginary portrait of Shennong (Japanese: Shinnō), the legendary Chinese emperor and reputed inventor of agriculture and herbal medicine. The landscapes, markedly asymmetrical in keeping with the Chinese Southern Song (1127–1279) conventions, also follow the popular Japanese late medieval formula for landscapes: the summer scene features a tall waterfall with a gushing stream, while its companion is enveloped in the silence of winter snow, a solitary traveler and a single pennant denoting a wine shop as the sole signs of human presence. The pair of landscapes (14.76.26, .28) were signed and dated by Tan’yū to his sixty-first year (1662), while the Shennong portrait (14.76.27), according to the signature, was brushed three years later, when the artist was sixty-four. Following the custom of having landscapes flank religious paintings to create a triptych, this set was brought together by a former owner

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