I have chosen the Ming dynasty era, there are so many beautiful things it was difficult for me to choose a few. These were my favorite pieces. The first one is by Wu Boli
I fell in love with this piece not only because of it’s name but looking at how the tree was drawn I can see the details of a vague dragon which is very creative and I am curious to see if the real trees look like this. And they do somewhat I think the artist may have added a little imagination, but that is what art is all about.
Wu Boli, a Daoist priest at the Shangqing (“Upper Purity”) Temple of Mount Longhu (Dragon Tiger Mountain), Jiangxi Province, was a close follower of Fang Congyi (ca. 1301–ca. 1392). Dragon Pine was painted for Zhang Yuchu, the forty-third Daoist pope of the Orthodox Unity sect, and bears his appreciative colophon.
This animated pine recalls an account by the tenth-century hermit painter Jing Hao in which he describes “a gigantic pine tree, its aged bark overgrown with lichen, its winged scales seeming to ride in the air. Its stature is like that of a coiling dragon trying to reach the Milky Way.” For Jing Hao, as for later artists, the pine tree signified “the moral character of the virtuous man.” Here, the pine tree may also represent the Daoist sage, or “perfected being.” According to Daoist geomantic beliefs, vital energies collect at the base of a mountain slope along the edge of a stream—precisely the location of the pine in Wu Boli’s painting.
(“Dragon Pine”)
The second piece I chose I was just amazed at the detail and beauty of this piece made during the Ming dynasty the artist is unknown. It is called Medallion with Return from a Spring Outing.
Ivory carving, which, like jade, was found in some of China’s earliest cultures, flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1644–1911) due to an increased supply of the material and to widespread patronage of the decorative arts. Although its function remains unclear, this medallion is one of the relatively few examples of ivory carving that can be dated with any certainty to the Ming period.
The richly carved scene of a scholar gentleman riding in a moonlight landscape shows parallels to similar painted scenes, which helps date this medallion to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Four young attendants carrying supplies accompany the traveling scholar, while a fifth hastens to open the gateway to a family compound. Such scenes, often found in the work of court and professional painters, are understood to represent a return from a spring outing filled with wine and poetry. The blending of various flowers (lotus and peony) and auspicious emblems (jade chime and pen) on the back of the medallion also point to a date in the late Ming period.
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