Gibbons at Play, Emperor Xuanzong (1399-1435), Ming dynasty. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, 162.3 x 127.7 cm
Gibbons at Play, Emperor Xuanzong (1399-1435), Ming dynasty. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, 162.3 x 127.7 cm.
The Ming emperor Xuanzong (Zhu Zhanji) enjoyed composing poems and doing paintings. According to the signature on this work, it was done in the second year of the Xuande reign (1427) by Xuanzong at the Chinese age of 29. It vividly and warmly depicts joy in the relationships found in a family of gibbons. Squatting on a rock, the mother gibbon clasps her baby, the father having plucked loquats for them. The youth has its left arm around its mother's neck and reaches out for the fruit teasingly presented by its father on the other bank of the stream. The varied poses of the gibbons with their animated expressions and actions are complemented by the expressive texture of fur rendered ingeniously with light and dark as well as wet and dry applications of ink. The lines for the thorny shrubs, bamboo, reeds, and water ripples in the setting are also natural and fluid.
Text and images are provided by National Palace Museum