明 張路 觀畫圖 軸|Studying a painting

Zhang Lu

16th century · Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk · Asian Art

Zhang Lu was an aristocrat born into a wealthy family and educated with princes of the imperial family. He attained great success as a professional painter but lived very simply, almost as a hermit. He began his study of painting by emulating the leading court painter, Wang E (act. ca. 1490–after 1541), but quickly turned from the academy to other models and masters, most notably Wu Wei (1459–1508). This painting parodies the theme of the literary gathering. A group of rustics congregates around a hanging scroll as a man seated on a stone table holds forth on its virtues. A woman seated at her loom cranes her neck for a better view, a fisherman skeptically strokes his whiskers, a child darts underneath the scroll for a closer look, and the barefoot man unrolling the scroll squints critically at the image—a hawk pursuing a rabbit—which is a well-known composition by Zhang Lu himself.

Artist

Zhang Lu

Date

16th century

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Purchase, Bequest of Dorothy Graham Bennett, 1990