This imaginary portrait of Tang Dynasty poet Meng Haoran (689–740) is exquisitely carved by Chen Yao, who signs his name after citing three quotations about Meng. The first quote, composed after Meng’s death, describes him as someone who “did not follow the ancients, yet had a wondrous creative ingenuity”—literally, he had a “craftsman’s mind.” The figure seated under a wutong tree has a scholarly aura, but the quotation also highlights the craftsmanship that produced this fan’s delicate carving.
Wood
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
35.613
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum acknowledges that we are located on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people.
