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The Orchid Pavilion Gathering
(China )
In 353, forty-two high officials who were also poets gathered at the Orchid Pavilion to celebrate a spring festival. The poems they composed were judged, and the losers had to take a stick, retrieve one of the wine-filled cups that had been ingeniously sent down the river, and empty it.
Much later, the text describing this happy occasion became a popular subject among artists, some of whom emphasized landscape, others the activities of the increasingly inebriated participants. This unsigned scroll is not easy to date. It has been dyed to make it look older than it actually is, but artificial aging has been practiced for centuries in China.
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.
Dr. John C. Ferguson [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; John C. Ferguson Collection Sale, American Art Association, April 7, 1916, no. 228 [as by Tang Yin, ca. 1525]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1916, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
China (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 11 9/16 x L: 208 13/16 in. (29.3 x 530.4 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1916
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.
35.56