Tang Di was one of the first southern scholar-artists to revive the Northern Song landscape traditions of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and this composition is typical of the many large-scale works he produced in emulation of northern prototypes. While Northern Song masters were inclined to depict the dynamic forces of nature through richly descriptive pictorial techniques, Tang reinterpreted the style using more calligraphic conventions. Here, he uses the gnarled trees and desolate lowlands of eleventh-century masters to "illustrate" a couplet by Wang Wei (699–759):
I walk to where the water ends And sit and watch as clouds arise.
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seals at upper left
painting
with mounting, rollers and knobs
inscription and seals at upper right
lower section
seals at lower left
seals at lower right
Artwork Details
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元 唐棣 摩詰詩意圖 軸
Title:Landscape after a poem by Wang Wei
Artist:Tang Di (Chinese, ca. 1287–1355)
Period:Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
Date:1323
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image: 50 3/4 x 27 1/16 in. (128.9 x 68.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 8 ft. 8 1/8 in. x 33 3/4 in. (264.5 x 85.7 cm) Overall with knobs: 8 ft. 8 1/8 in. x 37 in. (264.5 x 94 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Ernest Erickson Foundation, 1985
Object Number:1985.214.147
Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (2 columns in standard script)
In the spring, the third month of the third year of the Zhizhi reign era [1323], Tang Di, Zihua, of Wuxing [in Zhejiang] painted this picture after a poem by Mojie [Wang Wei, 699–759 or 701–761].
至治三年春三月吳興唐棣子華寫 《摩詰詩意圖》。
Artist's seals
Tang Di 唐棣 Tang shi Zihua 唐氏子華
Collectors’ seals
Chen Changji 陳長吉 (active late 19th c.) Shiyi micang 石逸祕藏 Chen Changji zi Shiyi yin 陳長吉字石逸印 Yi Lu 逸廬
Zhang Heng 張珩 (1915–1963) Yunhui Zhai yin 韞輝齋印 Zhan de yu ji yiran zizu 蹔得於己怡然自足 Zhang Heng siyin 張珩私印 Wuxing Zhang shi tushu zhi ji 吳興張氏圖書之記 Xinshang 心賞
Tan Jing 譚敬 (1911–1991) Tan Jing yin 譚敬印 Tan shi Ou Zhai shuhua zhi zhang 譚氏區齋書畫之章 Ou Zhai zhencang 區齋珍藏
Xu An 徐安 (20th c.) Xu An 徐安
Illegible: 1
The Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc. , New York (until 1985; donated to MMA)
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Chinese Art Under the Mongols," October 1, 1968–November 4, 1968.
New York. Asia House Gallery. "Chinese Art Under the Mongols," January 9, 1969–February 2, 1969.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Imperial Painting of the Ming Dynasty: The Zhe School," March 10–May 9, 1993.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Imperial Painting of the Ming Dynasty: The Zhe School," June 6–August 1, 1993.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Artist as Collector: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the C.C.Wang Family Collection," September 2, 1999–January 9, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The World of Scholars' Rocks: Gardens, Studios, and Paintings," February 1–August 20, 2000.
New York. China Institute in America. "The Chinese Painter as Poet," September 14, 2000–December 10, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Brush: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy," March 12–August 14, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Journeys: Mapping the Earth and Mind in Chinese Art," February 10–August 26, 2007.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings," March 1–August 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty," September 28, 2010–January 2, 2011.
Shanghai Museum. "Masterpieces of Chinese Tang, Song and Yuan Paintings from America," November 3, 2012–January 3, 2013.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from The Met Collection (Rotation One)," October 31, 2015–October 11, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
Cahill, James. An Index of Early Chinese Painters and Paintings: T'ang, Sung, and Yüan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 406–408, pl. 93.
Yang Zhenguo 杨振国. Haiwai cang Zhongguo lidai ming hua: Liao, Jin, Xixia, Yuan 海外藏中国历代名画: 辽, 金, 西夏, 元 (Famous paintings of successive periods in overseas collections) Edited by Lin Shuzhong 林树中. vol. 4, Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 1998, pp. 163–64, pl. 101.
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