Recluse playing the zither in a pine grove

Recluse playing the zither in a pine grove

Wen Zhengming

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wen Zhengming was the most influential Suzhou painter of the sixteenth century. He created his own immortality with his dogged determination to excel, his dozens of students, and an unusually long life of prodigious artistic production. In Playing the Qin in the Shade of the Pines, one of Wen's largest works, the freely executed boulders and impressionistically rendered trees coalesce into powerful interlocking forms when viewed, as intended, from across a spacious hall. The scroll is roughly contemporaneous with Wen's equally large calligraphic scrolls of the late 1520s, which were commissioned by the Jiajing emperor (r. 1522–66). Playing the seven-string zither (qin), a versatile instrument able to suggest nature's sounds, is associated with the solitary self-cultivation and reclusive existence of the scholar. A seventeenth-century qin is on display in the Ming Room of the Astor Court.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Recluse playing the zither in a pine groveRecluse playing the zither in a pine groveRecluse playing the zither in a pine groveRecluse playing the zither in a pine groveRecluse playing the zither in a pine grove

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.