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Landscape, after Ni Zan, Leaf from the Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual, part 1, vol. 5
Wang Gai Chinese
After Ni Zan Chinese
Not on view
The Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual was named after the Nanjing estate of the renowned playwright and novelist Li Yu (1611–1680), whose son-in-law commissioned Wang Gai (1645–1710) to compile the book. Part 1, devoted to landscape painting, was published in 1679. Compared with the earlier manual of the same nature, the Ten Bamboo Studio Collection of Calligraphy and Painting, it takes a more art-historical and didactic approach. This print, taken from a later edition of part 1, was printed from two or three blocks using varying shades of black ink to reproduce a painting by Ni Zan (1306–1374), one of the four masters of the late Yuan period (1271–1368).