Poems on Paintings, Written for Ma Yueguan

Jin Nong

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this album Jin Nong transcribed thirty-eight poems that he had recently composed. It begins with a set of twenty-four quatrains on the topic of earlier painters from the Tang (618–907) through the Yuan (1271–1368) period, followed by three poems on his self-portrait and others inspired by specific occasions. Jin dedicated this work to Ma Yueguan (1688–1755), a wealthy salt merchant and respected bibliophile in Yangzhou whose coterie included numerous eminent artists and scholars. First known as a talented poet and then as an eccentric calligrapher, Jin Nong had, by this time, also begun to make a name for himself as a painter. His exact, angular brushstrokes, derived from ancient inscriptions carved on stones and bronzes, mellowed slightly in his old age, as here. More than representative of Jin's late writing style, the album alludes to his attainment of the "Three Perfections": poetry, calligraphy, and painting.

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