Plaintext declares Ming Xiyuan poem

Author: Editorial Group of "Selected Calligraphic Works from Ancient Inscriptions and Stele"
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-01-01
Features: "Poems of Xiyuan" was composed by Wen Zhengming when he served as a court painter in the Hanlin Academy in Beijing at the age of fifty-six. The collection consists of ten seven-character regulated verse poems. It depicts the scenery of the imperial garden west of the palace city, centered around the Taiye Pool (now Zhongnanhai and Beihai). This scroll was written on June 10, Jiaji (1554 AD)——thirty years after the poems were composed, when Wen Zhengming was already eighty-five years old. The original is on Buddhist scripture paper, with a black silk border, measuring 28.4 cm in height and 44.74 cm in width. The running script in this scroll is vigorous and fluid, with a neat and elegant style, making it one of Wen Zhengming's late masterpieces. The back of the scroll bears inscriptions by Wang Shu and multiple seals, including the "Qing Mansion Appreciation of Calligraphy and Painting Seal."