Lot 1046: SHENG MAOYE (CIRCA 1607-1638)

SHENG MAOYE (CIRCA 1607-1638)
Gathering at the Lanting Pavilion
Fan mounted as a hanging scroll, ink on gold paper
Inscribed and signed: Sheng Maoye, with one seal
Dated the third month of gengshen year (1620)
6¾ x 19 5/8 in. (17.1 x 49.8 cm.)

Kaikodo, New York, 2004.

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.
The depiction of the figure writing calligraphy in a small pavilion at the far right of this composition, as well as the scholars seated along a river bank as cups of wine float by, identify this scene as the famous fourth-century literati gathering at the Orchid Pavilion (Lanting). After the participants enjoyed a game of poetry-composition and drinking, they inscribed their poems for posterity. The host of the party, Wang Xizhi (321-379), added a preface to this compilation, and thereby created the most famous work of calligraphic art in Chinese history. Sheng Maoye depicted this theme in another fan, in the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and illustrated in M. P.S. Wu, The Orchid Pavilion Gathering: Chinese Painting from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 2000, pp. 102-3.