Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting. It dates from 1649 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The work is executed in ink and color on silk, mounted as a hanging scroll, a traditional East Asian format suited to vertical or near-square display.
The work is executed in ink and color on silk, mounted as a hanging scroll, a traditional East Asian format suited to vertical or near-square display. Its physical dimensions are modest: 79.4 cm in height and 91.4 cm in width, giving the composition a slightly horizontal orientation within the scroll format. The silk support would have required careful handling during production, as the woven ground readily absorbs pigment and water, allowing for both fluid brushwork and controlled color washes.
The painting belongs to the Met's classification of paintings and is categorized as a genre scene depicting a man and a table, suggesting a narrative or everyday-life subject rendered in the pictorial conventions of mid-seventeenth-century Chinese painting. No condition report is provided in the available sources.
History & Provenance
The painting, dated 1649, was produced in China as a hanging scroll executed in ink and color on silk, depicting a man and a table in a genre scene. The work is attributed to an anonymous painter, with no documented commission or patron recorded in the available sources.
The painting entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is currently held. Beyond its creation date and place of origin, the available sources do not provide further details on an earlier ownership chain, intermediate collectors, or acquisition history prior to its presence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is recorded as accession number 1973.120.3.
Its exhibition history includes an appearance in 1974 within the museum’s galleries (Gallery 223) as part of a rotation of holdings from the Asian Art collection.
Overview
This painting, simply titled Untitled, is rendered in ink and color on silk and presented as a hanging scroll. It portrays a quiet interior scene featuring men gathered around a table set with china. The artist's skillful application of pigments and washes creates a notable sense of spatial depth, while the silk medium imparts a distinctive textural quality to the overall composition.
Subject & Meaning
The artwork's central focus is a group of men seated around a table, which is carefully arranged with various pieces of china. The composition offers a direct and unembellished portrayal of this gathering. While the specific narrative remains unstated due to the title, the scene suggests a moment of contemplation, conversation, or a shared meal within a domestic or communal setting.
Artist & collection
- 宋陳居中文姬歸漢圖軸
Untitled
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