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Quatrain on spring’s radiance

early 13th century
Not on view
During the Southern Song, artists and connoisseurs who wished to express their emotional responses to paintings frequently added poems to them. Empress Yang's poems appear on a number of paintings by such court artists as Ma Yuan (active ca. 1190–1225) and Ma Lin (active ca. 1180–after 1256); this quatrain must once have complemented a fan painting of flowers, but it reveals more about the state of mind of the empress than about the lost painting it accompanied:

My makeup worn and faded, only the scent lingers;
Still I shall enjoy spring's beauty before my eyes.
Once you said to me, how a year blooms quickly
and as quickly dies!
Might we now forsake worldly splendors for the
land of wine?

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 南宋 楊皇后 楷書薄薄殘妝七絕 團扇冊頁 絹本
  • Title: Quatrain on spring’s radiance
  • Artist: Empress Yang Meizi (Chinese, 1162–1232)
  • Period: Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
  • Date: early 13th century
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Round fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on silk
  • Dimensions: Image: 9 1/8 x 9 5/8 in. (23.2 x 24.4 cm)
  • Classification: Calligraphy
  • Credit Line: Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988
  • Object Number: 1989.363.12
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

Audio

Cover Image for 7382. Quatrain on Spring's Radiance

7382. Quatrain on Spring's Radiance

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Empress Yang Meizi - Quatrain on spring’s radiance - China - Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art