Nuwa Refining Rocks to Patch the Sky
Original Language Title清 任頤 鍊石補天
Artist
Ren Yi
(Chinese, 1840 - 1896)
Date1888
MediumHanging scroll; ink and color on silk
DimensionsImage: 47 × 26 inches (119.38 × 66.04 cm)
Mount: 100 × 32 1/2 inches (254 × 82.55 cm)
Mount: 100 × 32 1/2 inches (254 × 82.55 cm)
Credit LineGift of Beatrix Riedesel Freifrau zu Eisenbach in memory of her mother Victoria Contag von Winterfeldt
Object number74-16
On View
Not on viewCollections
Gallery LabelRen Yi, a pioneer of modern Chinese painting, depicts the Daoist deity Nuwa, whose image first appeared more than 2,000 years ago. In Daoism, Nuwa was a half-human, half-serpent goddess shown here as a gentle woman covering her body with a robe that slightly exposes her tail. In her story, a rebellion destroyed the giant pillar that held the sky together. To protect her people below, Nuwa created a polychrome boulder to repair the sky. Here, Ren uses layers of blue and green to depict Nuwa’s huge boulder, located to her upper right.
Dr. Victoria Contag von Winterfeldt (1906-1973), by April 1952-1973 [1];
By descent to her daughter, Beatrix Freifrau Riedesel zu Eisenbach, 1973-74;
Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1974.
NOTES:
[1] This object was on loan from von Winterfeldt to the Nelson-Atkins from April 1952 until her death in 1973.
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