Cleveland Museum of Art

Flowers and Rocks

Date

1368–1644

Medium

hanging scroll, color on silk

Culture

China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Here, the painter uses delicate brushwork and vivid colors to depict an early summer scene of three kinds of flowers growing beside a garden rock: From top to bottom we see flowering pomegranate, then peonies, and lilies below. Like the peony, which conveys wishes for wealth and prosperity, the pomegranate flower, here in festive red color turning soon into fruit with many seeds, is associated with the wish for many sons. The lily, in Chinese " baihe, " is a homophone with the pun "togetherness for a hundred years," expressing wishes for harmony and unity. The scroll would have made a suitable gift to married women.

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