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Potted Calamus and Pleasure Rock
(China )
"Some rocks are strange and eccentric,
formed by nature's cuts,
some grasses are young and tender,
green from winter to summer"
begins Zhangqi's [Chang Ch'i's] long poem. The large rock and the planter must be imagined sitting "before a clear window on an uncluttered desk."
The rest of the poem is devoted to the praise of the "divine sprouts" of the calamus growing in the planter. Its leaves are hung over doorways at the time of the annual dragonboat festival, and its dried rootlets have numerous medicinal uses.
The seals Zhangqi [Chang Ch'i] impressed upon his painting suggest something of his character. They read, "Having no worldly desires" and "Mountain master of vegetable roots."
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Kaikodo, New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1996, by purchase.
Geographies
China (Place of Origin)
Measurements
W: 14 13/16 x L: 31 15/16 in. (37.7 x 81.1 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, 1996
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
35.209