Objects, images, descriptions and audio guide.
A courtly couple holding tame hunting birds projects a mood of romance and a connection with nature. The Pahari region of the northwest Himalayas was famous for its nati…
Wang Meng, born into a distinguished family in Wuxing (modern Huzhou), Zhejiang province, was the maternal grandson of Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322). Aside from intermittent p…
Listening to the Qin recalls the story of Bo Ya, a musician who loved to play the qin (a seven-stringed zither) for Zhong Ziqi, who was a discerning listener. The cool s…
By the Southern Song period, the economic center of the silk industry had shifted to the lower Yangzi delta, while the north continued to be troubled by wars. Divided in…
In the course of his long career, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings. In this particular painting, the seventeenth-century costume, the brown palette, and his te…
When Yosa Buson died, his students raised funds for his daughter Kuno’s second marriage by selling their own paintings and calligraphies attached to surviving drafts of …
Scholars have recently speculated that this work does not actually depict a nun, although it has been described as such since 1543. A beautiful young woman presented as …
These panels depicting Saints Anthony the Abbot and Michael originally flanked a central scene of the Madonna and Child with Angels, now lost, to form a triptych. Giovan…
The Mughals hunted on horseback with falcons. The hunting party would ride out into the wild and flush the prey. Then, its hood removed, the falcon would chase the prey …
In the second half of the 1600s, Huangshan 黃山 (Mt. Huang or Yellow Mountain) attracted many visitors and inspired artists like Mei Qing. He probably sketched the Nine …
A small boy, accompanied by his mother, is closing his hands in greeting to an old monk who has a young attendant standing behind him. Scholars believe the scene is a me…
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a Christian, was martyred for refusing to make sacrifices to idols as decreed by the pagan Roman emperor Maxentius. While Maxentius first …
What are some of the key steps in conserving this picture? While it may seem disturbing, the condition of this work is not unusual for a 16th-century panel painting. Tre…
Saint Barbara holds both a book and a ring symbolizing her scholarly pursuits and union with God. According to legend, the leather thongs with which she was beaten were …
This album leaf was probably created in 1695 for a friend Shitao had traveled with to visit ancient sites along the Qinhuai River from the Six Dynasties period. A tiny f…
The twenty paintings in this double album by Chen Hongshou include landscapes, figures, and flowers. It also has one leaf featuring a woman, an often-used subject not fo…
The twenty paintings in this double album by Chen Hongshou include landscapes, figures, and flowers. It also has one leaf featuring a woman, an often-used subject not fo…
This fourteenth-century hanging scroll depicts Kṣitigarbha (지장보살), the Bodhisattva of Salvation in the guise of a youthful Buddhist monk. Clad in simple monastic rob…
The marriage shown in this painting is called “mystic” because it was a purely symbolic. The infant Jesus places a ring on the finger of Catherine of Alexandria, a fourt…
This loosely painted sketch is the preliminary design for an altarpiece in the Church of Saint Ulrich, Vienna. Mary and Joseph have brought the infant Jesus to the templ…
Along with Cupids in Conspiracy (1948.181.2), this work is surely part of a series of over-door paintings that would have been installed in a house. However, where the p…
Saint Catherine holds the sword with which she was martyred, and Saint Barbara holds both a book and a ring symbolizing her scholarly pursuits and union with God. Accord…
The grandest of the Buddhist mortuary rites is the Water-Land ( shuilu ) ritual. This esoteric ceremony is conducted for the salvation of “all souls of the dead on land …
This painting represents bodhisattvas of the 10 stages of enlightenment undergoing the final processes toward Buddhahood. This and CMA 1973.70.2 form part of a set of sc…