The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 10, 2024

Nine Songs

Nine Songs

1361
(Chinese, active c.1336–after 1364)
(Chinese, active 1361)
Overall: 28 x 438.2 cm (11 x 172 1/2 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Divided into eleven sections, the scroll contains illustrations by painter Zhang Wu followed by a transcription of the relevant verse by calligrapher Chu Huan.

Description

Painted in the baimiao, or fine-line drawing style, this ancient work demonstrates the literati’s use of abstract calligraphic brushwork for self-expression. The subject of the “Nine Songs”—songs associated with shamanistic rituals in the ancient Chu kingdom—had traditionally provided artists with myths and legends that they could explore and reinterpret in their own works.
  • Shen Deqian 沈德潛 [1673–1769]
    Lu Shihua 陸時化 [1714–1789]
    Lin of Ningbo 四明林氏 [early 20th century]
    Xu Maoxun 徐懋勳 [late 19th–20th century]
    Xu Bangda 徐邦達 [1911–2012]
    ?-1959
    (C. C. Wang 王季遷 [1907–2003], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1959-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lu, Shihua 陸時化. Wu Yue suo jian shu hua lu: 6 juan 吳越所見書畫錄 : 六卷. Shunde: Teng shi, 1910. ch. 3, pp. 6(a)-6(b).
    Jiao yu bu di er ci quan guo mei shu zhan lan hui zhuan ji [敎育部第二次全國美術展覽會專集 = A special collection of the second National Exhibition of Chinese Art under the auspices of the Ministry of Education]. [Nanjing?]: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1937. Vol. 1, cat. no. 75
    Dubosc, Jean Pierre, and Alberto Giuganino. Mostra D'arte Cinese: Catalogo = Exhibition of Chinese Art: Catalogue. Venezia: Alfieri Editore, 1954. cat. no. 785
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: IV, 36; VI, pls. 44, 45; VII, Lists, 100
    Chen, Rentao 陳仁濤 [J.D. Chen]. Gu gong yi yi shu hua mu jiao zhu 故宮已佚書畫目校注. Hong Kong: Dongnan shu ju, 1956. p. 14(b)
    Goepper, Roger. 1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei. München: Haus der Kunst, 1959. cat. no. 36
    Goepper, Roger. The Essence of Chinese Painting. London: Lund Humphries, 1963. Reproduced: pp. 60, 61, 100, 101, pls. 10, 11
    Zheng, Zhenduo 郑振鐸. Zhongguo gu dai hui hua xuan ji [中國古代繪畫選集]. Beijing: Ren min mei shu chu ban she, 1963. Reproduced: pl. 63
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 261 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968. cat. no. 187
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 261 archive.org
    Barnhart, Richard M. Survivals, Revivals, and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Figure Painting 中國傳統人物畫的遺風與復興之研究. [Taipei]: [National Palace Museum], 1970. Reproduced: p. 174, fig. 21
    Toynbee, Arnold, and Elsé Glahn. Half the World: The History and Culture of China and Japan. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. Reproduced: p. 155
    Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. cat. no. 15
    Kawakami, Kei 川上涇, Teisuke Toda 戶田禎佑, and Toshio Ebine 海老根聰郎. Ryō Kai, Indara [粱楷・因陀羅 = Liang Kai, Yintuoluo]. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, Shōwa 50 [1975]. figs. 4-7, supp. pl. 25
    Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976. Reproduced: pp. 153, 154, pl. 70
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 346 archive.org
    Oertling, Sewall Jerome. Ting Yün-Pʼeng: A Chinese Artist in the Late Ming Dynasty. PhD dissertation. University of Michigan, 1980. pp. 170, 180
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 96, pp. 119-122
    Williams, Marjorie. Chinese Painting--an Escape from the "Dusty" World. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 3
    Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China : the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. Reproduced: p. 3, fig. 3
    Sugimura, Tō 杉村棟. Isurāmu イスラーム. Tōkyō: Shōgakukan, 1999. Reproduced: p. 128, no. 106
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 76-77
    Murray, Julia K. Mirror of Morality: Chinese Narrative Illustration and Confucian Ideology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Reproduced: p. 69, fig. 44
    Yang, Kathleen 楊凱琳, and Chi-chʻien Wang 王季遷. Through a Chinese connoisseur's eye: private notes of C.C. Wang 王季遷讀書筆記. Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju, 2010. Reproduced: p. 309, fig. 22
    Chung, Anita, Julia Frances Andrews, Kuiyi Shen, Tamaki Maeda, and Aida Yuen Wong. Chinese art in an age of revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965). Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: p. 90, fig. 39
    Tan, Yvonne. "Masterpieces of Song and Yuan Paintings from American Collections." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries (Nov 2012): 12–13. Reproduced: p. 12
    Chung, Anita. "Collaboration and Commemoration: Cleveland's Masterpieces at the Shanghai Museum." Orientations 43:8 (Nov/Dec 2012): 90–95. Reproduced: p. 94-95, fig 5
    Shanghai bo wu guan. Han mo hui cui: xi du Meiguo cang Zhongguo Wu dai Song Yuan shu hua zhen pin [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. Reproduced: cat no. 44, pp. 397-379
    Zhang, Hongxing, Lizhong Ling, Masaaki Itakura, Charles Mason, Shane McCausland, Camille Schmitt, Clarissa von Spee, and Roderick Whitfield. Masterpieces of Chinese Painting, 700-1900. London: V & A Publishing, 2013. Reproduced: pp. 104-105, fig. 48
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 157-163
    Lu, Elisabeth A. Jung. Ru jia jing shen yu Nan chao feng liu de jiao hui: Bei Qi shi ke shu fa chuan tong de yuan liu he chuan bo [儒家精神與南朝風流的交會 : 北齊石刻書法傳統的源流和傳播 (550-577) = When Confucian spirit meets Southern elegance: the origins and transmission of calligraphic traditions carved in stone during the Northern Qi dynasty (550-577)]. Hangzhou Shi: Zhejiang ren min mei shu chu ban she, 2018. Reproduced: Vol. II, pp. 360–361, fig. 2.32
  • Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections. Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (organizer) (November 1, 2012-January 3, 2013).
    The Art of Fu Baoshi (1904 - 1965). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 16, 2011-January 8, 2012).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 122). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 27, 2003-March 10, 2004).
    Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
    Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 10-April 10, 1988).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-April 5, 1981).
    The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).
    Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 24, 1968)
    Chinese Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1960).
    1000 Jahre Chinesische Malerei. Haus der Kunst, Munich, Mùnich, Germany (organizer) (October 16-December 13, 1959).
    Mostra D'arte Cinese. Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy (1954).
    Chiao-yü-pu. [Jiao yu bu di er ci quan guo mei shu zhan lan hui zhuan ji = 敎育部第二次全國美術展覽會專集 = A special collection of the second National Exhibition of Chinese Art under the auspices of the Ministry of Education]. Nanking Art Gallery, Nanjing, China (April 1-23, 1937).
  • {{cite web|title=Nine Songs|url=false|author=Zhang Wo, Chu Huan|year=1361|access-date=10 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.138