Gathering of government officials

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This idyllic painting records the gathering of government officials and belongs to the Joseon painting genre known as gyehoedo. Though the gathering is reason for the painting, the figures are diminutively situated within an ideal landscape setting. Five officials are seated on an embankment near the water. They may have arrived via the two moored boats. In the bottom left corner, another official arrives on horseback with three attendants. As no gathering is successful without food and drink, an attendant is seated by a brazier preparing refreshments. The landscape elements are painted in a typical 16th-century style derived ultimately from the Chinese idiom of Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090). The tripartite composition features foreground rocky boulders topped by trees rendered with a mixture of wash and short strokes, a middle ground expanse of open water with a single fishing boat, and distant bulbuous mountain peaks. In keeping with the gyehoedo genre, there is a prominent poetic inscription on the painting that is dated 1565.

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