The
Renaissance
Society

"A picture is a voiceless poem, a poem is a vocal picture." So runs the proverb of China bearing the secret of her art. Culture was the basis on which inspiration and imagination wove delicate conceptions of form and life, while hand in hand went a spiritual surrender and devotion to nature and the all-meaning forms of her wildest and most delicate fancies.

The creation nurtured in the artist's soul was transcribed with the brush, pointed and flexible, capable of infinite grace and expression in decoration and in the manifestation of artistic personality.

Co-ordination of mind, eye, and hand, ever guided by the heart, has engendered the richness and delicacy of every Chinese pictorial masterpiece.

Edward F. Rothschild
Department of Art, The University of Chicago


CHRONOLOGY
T'ang: 618-906 A.D.
Sung: 960-1277 A.D.
Yuan: 1277-1368 A.D.


Text from the exhibition catalogue