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SHENG MAOYE
Chinese, active ca. 1610-1640
Autumn Landscape, 1618
Hanging scroll, ink and slight colors on silk.
46 x 13 1/2 in. (117 x 34 cm)
George and Mary Rockwell Collection. 64.1051
Two men are shown sitting in conversation in a thatched-roof open pavilion
that is perched on pilings set into the riverbank. In an enjoining pavilion
two servants are in attendance. In the foreground is a rustic fence and
a gate left open to welcome the next visitor. Described here is the perfect
idyllic retreat, a place isolated from the clamor of ordinary life, and
fit for the quiet contemplation of nature--the perfect life, as defined
by the gentlemen-scholars of China.
When Sheng Maoye painted this hanging scroll, the region of Suzhou was no
longer the vital center of intellectual activity that it had been for more
than a century. Thus there is an air of nostalgia in Sheng's treatment of
the scene: a soft enveloping mist gently obscures the distant mountains,
and the muted autumnal colors add to the feeling of past glories kept alive.
The mood is reinforced by the poem Sheng has added: "In front of the
gate, falling leaves float on autumn waters/ Outside the fence, the mynah
bird brings forth the setting sun."
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