Description
A scholar on a boat in the middle ground bathes his feet in the cooling stream. The vast river scene is depicted from a high viewing point. The motif of a scholar washing his feet illustrates the phrase, “When the waters of the Canglang are clear, I wash my capstrings. When the waters of the Canglang are muddy, I wash my feet [only]” (from Songs of Chu, written before 256 BC). The passage evokes the image of the virtuous scholar-official who avoids government service when the ruler is corrupt (the rivers are muddy) and resumes service (washing my capstrings) when the waters are clear. Whether the artist here alludes to unfavorable times of government is not clear.
Provenance
(Frank Caro [1904–1980], New York, NY, sold to Mrs. A. Dean Perry); Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry [1911–1996], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?–1997); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1997–)
Accession Number
1997.103
Medium
Hanging scroll mounted on a panel; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
Image: 170.2 x 79.4 cm (67 x 31 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
Tags
Painting Renaissance (1400–1599) Ink Panel Painting Paper Chinese
Background & Context
Background Story
Wen Boren (1502-1575) was a Chinese painter known for the elegantly composed, precisely observed landscape paintings that make him one of the most accomplished painters of the Ming dynasty Wu School. Washing the Feet (from the Dusty World) from 1570 depicts a scholar washing his feet in the elegantly composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Wen Boren's best work from the more general landscape painting of his contemporaries. The subject of washing the feet from the dusty world represents the literati ideal of retreating from worldly concerns into the purity of nature, and Wen Boren's elegantly composed treatment shows the Wu School landscape tradition at its most refined.
Cultural Impact
Washing the Feet (from the Dusty World) is important in the history of Chinese painting because it demonstrates the elegantly composed, precisely observed manner of the Wu School tradition as practiced by one of its most accomplished painters. The subject of washing the feet from the dusty world—representing the literati ideal of retreating from worldly concerns into the purity of nature—was one of the most important subjects in Chinese literati painting, and the 1570 painting shows this tradition at its most elegantly composed.
Why It Matters
Washing the Feet is Wen Boren's elegantly composed Wu School landscape: a scholar washing his feet from the dusty world rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished painters of the Ming dynasty. The 1570 painting shows the literati ideal of retreat from worldly concerns that is one of the most important subjects in Chinese painting.
