Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Couplet
Calligrapher Yi Bingshou Chinese
Not on view
清朝 伊秉綬 行書 對聯 絹本
During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), pairs of hanging scrolls known as couplets (duilian) became popular as gifts. They were intended for public display, often during seasonal holidays, weddings, and other auspicious occasions. The rules for couplets are strict: only two lines of poetry could be presented, one on each scroll, and there had to be many parallel structures between the two. Here, using lines from two poems of the Tang dynasty (617–906), Yi Bingshou has created an example of “gathered verses,” in which lines from older poems are joined into new combinations. The couplet reads:
Right: Deep colors penetrate heaven, two thousand feet
in height!
Left: Beautiful flowers emerge from earth, and climb two
flights of stairs.
The highly original style of Yi’s semicursive script was also the result of a thoughtful combination. Some of the character structures are taken from clerical script, while the fluidity of the writing is due to a semicursive approach. The extreme variation in the brushwork from thin and pointy to thick and blunt is a mixture of the two.
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