Nine Dragons

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This painting follows the manner of the most celebrated dragon painter in Chinese history, the scholar-official and Daoist master Chen Rong. Chen famously avoided depicting the complete forms of his dragons, preferring to preserve their mystery by partially obscuring them in mists and clouds. In places, the artist of this work depicts a dragon in its entirety, one of the signs that it is a later painting in Chen’s manner. The inscription at the end is either a copy of an authentic Chen Rong or an outright fabrication.

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