Description
This painting represents a microcosm (a world in small) of the Jiangnan ecosystem: while the bush cricket feeds on bamboo, the male widow-skimmer dragonfly is a predator of small insects like mosquitos. Mosquitoes, abundant in late summer and early autumn, suggest the fall season.
Provenance
(Heisando Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art (? by 1980–1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985–)
Accession Number
1985.364
Medium
Album leaf; ink and light color on silk
Dimensions
Image: 23.8 x 25.6 cm (9 3/8 x 10 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Tags
Painting Medieval (500–1399) Ink Silk Painting
Background & Context
Background Story
Insects and Bamboo from the 1200s depicts insects and bamboo in the precisely observed manner of the Southern Song dynasty painting tradition. The precisely observed depiction of insects and plants was one of the most important subjects in Chinese painting, representing the intersection of scientific observation with artistic beauty that was central to the Chinese painting tradition. The 1200s date places this in the Southern Song period, when the tradition of precisely observed plant and insect painting was producing some of its most accomplished works, and the precisely observed treatment of the insects and bamboo shows the Southern Song tradition at its most refined.
Cultural Impact
Insects and Bamboo is important in the history of Chinese painting because it demonstrates the tradition of precisely observed plant and insect painting in the Southern Song period. The tradition of precisely observed plant and insect painting—combining scientific observation with artistic beauty—was one of the most accomplished traditions in Chinese painting, and the 1200s painting shows this tradition at its most refined in the Southern Song period.
Why It Matters
Insects and Bamboo is an anonymous Southern Song painting: insects and bamboo rendered in the precisely observed manner that represents one of the most accomplished traditions in Chinese painting. The 1200s painting shows the combination of scientific observation with artistic beauty that is the hallmark of the Chinese plant and insect painting tradition.
