Art Institute of Chicago

Flowers of the Four Seasons 四季花卉圖

Chen Jiayan 陳嘉言 (Chinese, 1539-after 1625)

Date

Ming dynasty (1368–1644), dated 1599

Medium

Handscroll; ink on paper

Culture

China

Department

Arts of Asia

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The artist of this softly monochromatic handscroll evokes the passage of time with plants that bloom in sequence throughout the four seasons. The flowers of spring—tree peony, spring cymbidium, astor, peach, iris, and rose—flow into summer, beginning with the white magnolia ( yulan ) and crab apple ( haitang ). Together, these last two flowers comprise a rebus or visual pun for the auspicious phrase “yutang fugui:” “wealth and rank in the Jade Hall.” The Jade Hall alludes to the Hanlin Academy, a government bureau where esteemed scholars were appointed to compile documents for the imperial court. The opening section shown here depicts the first three flowers of spring.

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