Brush holder with the story of Pan An
Not on view
The young women on the balcony of this wonderfully carved brush holder throw fruit to an attractive young man passing beneath them. He is most likely the extraordinarily handsome scholar Pan An (247–300), who often drew such attention. The cart pulled by a white goat, however, refers to another young man, Wei Jie (286–312), who was also known for his good looks but was not associated with fruit. The artist seems to have freely combined the tales of both men into a composite scene. Such images are often found in various decorative arts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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