id: 147574 accession number: 1973.72 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.72 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:34.901000 Waiting for the Moon in the Mid Autumn Festival, 1400s. Shi Rui (Chinese, c. 1400-c. 1470). Handscroll, ink, color, and gold on silk; painting: 27.5 x 155 cm (10 13/16 x 61 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1973.72 title: Waiting for the Moon in the Mid Autumn Festival title in original language: 中秋待月圖 series: series in original language: creation date: 1400s creation date earliest: 1426 creation date latest: 1470 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) technique: handscroll, ink, color, and gold on silk department: Chinese Art collection: ASIAN - Handscroll type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Shi Rui (Chinese, c. 1400-c. 1470) - artist --- measurements: Painting: 27.5 x 155 cm (10 13/16 x 61 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: [印] 石氏以明; 游戯翰墨. translation: remark: inscription: 僊山樓觀 translation: remark: inscription: 1 inscription, dated 1639, and 1 seal of Xiao Yuncong 蕭雲従 (1596-1673). Inscription by Xiao Yuncong: This is a painting by the Junior General Li. The painting is damaged and cracked at many places. Many of the paper strips for backing have been missing since long ago, but the colors are still fresh as if they had just been applied and the ink still looks moist. During the reign of Tianbao (742-756) of the Tang Dynasty, the Imperial Klansman Li Sixun was summoned to paint the walls of the Datong Hall. He was known as the "Senior General." His son, who came to be known as the "Junior General," was named Zhaodao. Of the stone epitaph [Li Sixun bei, or the "epitaph of Li Sixun," one of the best known calligraphic monuments of the Tang Dynasty], engraved with the calligraphy of Li Beihai 李北海 [Li Yong 李邕, 678-747], more than half has fallen off. Why, in contrast, was this painting able to survive? Or could it be that despite the fact that the stone is hard and the silk is soft, their preservation or destruction depends on some other factors? Moreover, since they were titled nobility of imperial descent, it is doubtful that they had the leisure and the mood to indulge in such decorative and descriptive blue and gold painting for the mere amusement of their fellow men. Recently, I read the Yi zhou ming hua lu 益州名畫錄 [by Huang Xiufu 黃休復, preface 1005]. I found a certain Li Chin-nu who compared himself with Li Zhaodao 李昭道 and was called by the Sichuan people the Junior General Li. In a painting which he did, entitled Mt. Ch'ing-ch'eng, the architectural structure of the pavilions, terraces, bridges, and boats are meticulous and accurate. The horsemen on a spring outing are as small as grain and the wild geese among the clouds as tiny as dust. It was also said that he painted on silk of any length in accordance to specific commissions. Is it possible that this painting is one of his? Since that time 700 years have passed. Yet one of the two Junior General Li's must be our painter. Formerly, there were the so-called "Four Excellents" in the Hall of Portraits of the Buddhist monk Wu-ta Kuo-shih: the [portrait] painting by Ch'ang Ts'an [act. ca. 881-888}, the calligraphy by Priest Tao-ying, the eulogy by Li Shangyin 李商隱 [813-858], and the landscape by Li Sheng [act. ca. 908-925]. This Li Sheng was styled Chin-nu and was also called Junior General Li. In the tenth month of the Chi-mao year, the twelfth year of the Chongzhen era [1639], recorded by Xiao Yuncong of Wuhu. trans. WKH translation: remark: inscription: 4 colophons and 30 additional seals: 1 seal of Xu Qianxue 徐乾學 (1631-1694); 1 seal of Li Chien 黎簡 (1747-1799); 1 seal of Chang Chin-fang (18th c.); 2 seals of Sun Erzhun 孫爾準 (1770–1832); 1 colophon and 2 seals of Zhang Weiping 張維屛 (1780-1859); 1 seal of Wu Rongguang 吳榮光 (1773-1843); 1 colophon and 2 seals of Luo Tianchi 羅天池 (1826 jinshi); 7 seals of Wu Yanhui 伍元蕙 (active 1821–1851); 2 colophons and 4 seals of Pan Zhengwei 潘正煒 (1791-1850); 9 seals unidentified. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 3, 1982-February 28, 1983).', 'opening_date': '1981-02-10T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Pan Zhengwei 潘正煒 [1791–1850] date: footnotes: citations: Wu Yuanhui 伍元蕙 [active 1821–1851] date: footnotes: citations: Abel William Bahr [1877–1959] date: footnotes: citations: (Robert H. Ellsworth Ltd., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1973 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1973- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Pan, Zhengwei 潘正煒. Ting fan lou shu hua ji 聽帆樓書畫記. Shanghai: Shanghai shu hua chu ban she, 2000. (Text dated 1843) page number: url: Lee, Sherman E. “Early Ming Painting at the Imperial Court.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 62, no. 8, 1975, pp. 243–259. page number: Reproduced: pp. 245-246, figs. 3-6 url: www.jstor.org/stable/25152602 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 348 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n368 Cahill, James. Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580. New York: Weatherhill, 1978. page number: Mentioned: p. 26, no. 8 url: Sullivan, Michael. The Arts of China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. page number: p. 211 url: Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 136, pp. 159-161 url: Barnhart, Richard M., Mary Ann Rogers, and Richard Stanley-Baker. Painters of the Great Ming: The Imperial Court and the Zhe School. Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1993. page number: Reproduced: pp. 74-75, cat. no. 23 url: Barnhart, Richard M., Xin Yang, Chongzheng Nie, James Cahill, Shaojun Lang, and Hung Wu. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1997. page number: Reproduced: p. 204, no. 184 url: Nishioka, Yasuhiro 西岡康宏 and Noriko Miyazaki 宮崎法子. Min 明. Tōkyō: Shōgakukan, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 330, no. 211, 212 url: Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. page number: Reproduced: pp. 222-228 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.72/1973.72_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.72/1973.72_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.72/1973.72_full.tif