Landscape album

Bada Shanren (Zhu Da)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A scion of a branch of the Ming imperial family, Bada Shanren became a "crazy" Buddhist monk, feigning deafness in order to escape persecution after the Ming dynasty fell to Manchu conquest in 1644. Like his cousin Shitao (Zhu Ruoji), he became an extraordinary painter, known for an expessionist calligraphic style. In these album-size landscapes, Bada has adopted traditional themes and compositions as points of departure for his own creative improvisations. In several leaves, the sparse composition, dry brushwork, and carefully selected motifs—bare trees and an empty pavilion—allude to the late Yuan hermit-artist Ni Zan (1306–1374). Elsewhere, diagonally receding mountain masses made of simplified ovoid and cone-shaped rock forms derive from the landscape style of Dong Qichang (1555–1636). In each case, however, Bada transmuted his models, playing with spatially ambiguous patterns or adding human figures or color when least expected.

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