Landscapes after Tang-dynasty poems

Sheng Maoye

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sheng Maoye, a professional painter active in his native Suzhou, shows in his work a lively interest in the shifting atmospheric effects of landscapes in mist and rain or of clouds at twilight or dawn. In these album leaves, images suggested by couplets excerpted from Tang-dynasty (618–907) poems provided the springboard for the artist's imagination. Sheng's interest in exploring the descriptive potentials of monochrome ink—sometimes with the addition of pale colors—to suggest different states of atmospheric realism was shared by his contemporaries in the Nanjing area, including Fan Qi (1616–after 1694) and Gong Xian (1619–1689).

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