WU LI
Chinese, 1632-1718
The Lute Song, dated 1681
Handscroll, ink and colors on paper. 10 x 39 1/4 in. (25 x 100 cm)
George and Mary Rockwell Collection. 65.665
The subject of this short handscroll is taken from one the best-known
poems of the famous Tang poet Bo Zhuyi. Composed in 816, the poem tells
the tale of the exiled poet who late one autumn evening hears the sounds
of the lute from a boat moored by the riverside and finds a former lady
of the court, now married to a country merchant, playing songs on the lute
that remind them both of their former years at the court. The age-old themes
of loneliness, political exile, remoteness from civilized pleasures, along
with the lyrical |
enchantment of an autumn evening with moonlight on a misty river, are described
by Wu Li with understated elegance in this deft handling of a great poem.
Among Wu Li's distinctions was his conversion to Christianity, a rarity
among Chinese painters, and in 1680 he was baptized under the name Simon
Xavier. In 1681 he started out on a journey to Rome but got only as far
as the Portuguese colony of Macao, where he remained for a number of years.
This painting was done shortly after his arrival in Macao, and according
to his inscription he did the painting "thinking of the past."
Despite Wu Li's exposure to Western works of art, this painting betrays
no Western influence, and in this sense, in both subject matter and style,
it is indeed a true tribute to the Chinese past. |
