Landscape Depicting the Scene from “Essay on Delighting the Mind”
Mount: 95 × 18 inches (241.3 × 45.72 cm)
Xu Bangda’s painting illustrates an ideal retreat with a spacious courtyard house set in a verdant landscape with paddy fields, mountains, and streams. Xu was inspired by Zhong Chantong’s (180–220 C.E.) “Essay on Delighting the Mind,” inscribed above the landscape. In the essay, Zhong yearns for retirement in the tranquil countryside, away from his busy life as a political and social critic. What would your ideal escape look like?
Dr. Victoria Contag von Winterfeldt (1906-1973), Munich, Germany, by April 1952-1973 [1];
By descent to her daughter, Beatrix Freifrau Riedesel zu Eisenbach, 1973-75;
Purchased from Beatrix Freifrau Riedesel zu Eisenbach by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1975.
NOTES:
[1] Victoria von Winterfeldt was a sinologist at the University of Mainz. This object was on loan from her to the Nelson-Atkins from April 1952 until her death in 1973.
