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Source Description
Zhao Zhong's flowers, each paired with a poem, echo the fine-style colored flowers of the academic tradition, but instead he used only ink. Fine lines define the contours of each plant, as well as the veins within each petal and leaf. Careful ink washes give subtle modeling to the forms. <br><br>The combination of lily, narcissus, and peony is unusual as the three belong to no known seasonal or symbolic system popular in the fourteenth century. Zhao’s medical training may have influenced the selection. Powdered lilies, for example, were prescribed to dispel grief, while the bark of tree peony roots was used as a treatment for various blood disorders.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
143462
label
Ink Flowers
core
obj
dtoType
painting
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
143462
contentType
painting
title
Ink Flowers
description
Zhao Zhong's flowers, each paired with a poem, echo the fine-style colored flowers of the academic tradition, but instead he used only ink. Fine lines define the contours of each plant, as well as the veins within each petal and leaf. Careful ink washes give subtle modeling to the forms. <br><br>The combination of lily, narcissus, and peony is unusual as the three belong to no known seasonal or symbolic system popular in the fourteenth century. Zhao’s medical training may have influenced the selection. Powdered lilies, for example, were prescribed to dispel grief, while the bark of tree peony roots was used as a treatment for various blood disorders.
date
1361
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60469875
creators
11254
genreSpecific
Painting
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 31.8 x 153.2 cm (12 1/2 x 60 5/16 in.)
cul
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
accession
1967.36
Source extras
tec
Handscroll; ink on paper
tombstone
Ink Flowers (墨花圖), 1361. Zhao Zhong (Chinese, second half of the 1300s). Handscroll; ink on paper; overall: 31.8 x 153.2 cm (12 1/2 x 60 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1967.36
titleInOriginalLanguage
墨花圖
collection
ASIAN - Handscroll
inscriptions
inscription
寶帶同心結，香羅合歡扇。/
繡作錦鴛鴦，雙雙為君獻。/
薔薇露灑熏籠衣，馨香奉君君勿違。
原初并題。
[印] 趙衷原初畫記
inscription_translation
Artist's first poem:
The precious belt, the love knot;/
The scented silk and the round fan for the happy union./
Mandarin duck embroidery in the silk brocade,/
In pairs are they dedicated to you./
I splash the rose dews to the incense brazier,/
The fragrance of flowers, I offer you./
May you not violate the vow!
Inscribed by Yuanchu.
Seal: “Zhao Zhong Yuanchu huaji”
inscription
翠袂素羅韈，玉臺黃金盃。浩歌渡弱水。天風卷海三山開，麻姑方平為招飲，蛟宮獻舞銀濤堆。
原初并題。
[印] 雲林清趣、[印] 趙衷原初畫記。
inscription_translation
Artist's second poem:
The green long sleeves with the white silk socks;/
On the jade terrace is the golden cup./
Singing the grand song, she crosses the calm river./
The heavenly winds blow and roll up the sea,/
Opening the Three Mountains./
Magu and Fangping summon the drinks./
The Dragon Palace offers the dance,/
Piling up silver waves in the sea.
Inscribed by Yuanchu.
Two seals: “Yunlin qingqu,” “Zhao Zhong Yuanchu huaji.”
inscription
右用湯叔雅慶元中所寫墨花法作此卷，又效李長吉體賦詩以題之。詩與畫雖未工，要皆出於古人之餘，譬猶欲成方圓而必求其規矩之用也，識者毋誚焉！至正辛丑八月望日，東吳野人趙衷原初謹識。
[印] 趙原初、[印] 傳世清玩
inscription_translation
Artist's colophon:
I did this scroll, using the ink-flower method of Tang Shuya [i.e. Tang Zhengzhong 湯正仲 (mid 12th–early 13th century)] of the Qingyuan period. I also composed poems in the style of Li Changji [i.e. Li He 李賀 (790–816)] and inscribed herewith. My poems and painting may not be very good; they are nonetheless derived from the heritage of the ancients. It is just as if one wants to draw a square and a circle, one must first know how to use the ruler and the compass. May the connoisseur kindly refrain from laughing at them. The fifteenth day of the eighth month in 1361. Respectfully inscribed by Dong Wu Ye Ren [a rustic of the Eastern Wu], Zhao Zhong, Yuanchu.
Two seals: “Zhao Yuanchu,” “Chuanshi qingwan”
didYouKnow
This handscroll is a very rare example of ink flowers in the linear <em>baimiao</em> style of the fourteenth century.
citations
citation
<em>Tō Sō Gen Min meigaten-gō [</em>唐宋元明名画展号]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun Hakkōjo, 1928.
page_number
p. 42
citation
Xie, Zhiliu 谢稚柳. <em>Tang wu dai song yuan ming ji </em>唐五代宋元名迹. Shanghai: Gu dian wen xue chu ban she 古典文学出版社, 1957.
page_number
Reproduced: no. 35, pl. 107
citation
“Year in Review.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>, vol. 54, no. 10, 1967, pp. 302–346.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 346, no. 157; Reproduced: p. 334
citation
Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. <em>Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968.
page_number
cat. no. 183
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 262
citation
Lee, Sherman. “To See Big within Small: Hsiao-Chung-Chien-Ta.” <em>The Burlington Magazine</em> 114, no. 830 (May 1972): 312+314-323.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 318, fig. 58
citation
Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. <em>The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. no. 20, p. 113, pp. 62-63
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 346
citation
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. <em>Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. no. 72, pp. 91-92
citation
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. <em>Masterworks of Asian Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 78-79
citation
Shanghai bo wu guan. <em>Han mo hui cui: xi du Meiguo cang Zhongguo Wu dai Song Yuan shu hua zhen pin</em> [翰墨薈萃: 细读美国藏中国五代宋元书画珍品 = Masterpieces of early Chinese painting and calligraphy in American collections]. Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2012.
page_number
Reproduced: cat no. 52, pp. 483-491.
citation
Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. <em>Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 154–156
citation
Xie, Zhiliu 谢稚柳. <em>Tang Wu dai Song Yuan ming ji </em>唐五代宋元名迹. Shanghai: Shanghai ren min chu ban she, 2018.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 209–211
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:22:44.520000
sourceId
143462
dept
Chinese Art
coll
ASIAN - Handscroll
med
Handscroll; ink on paper
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
69e53a52c712d54c