1964.94: Moon and Melon

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1964.94

People

Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) 八大山人 (朱耷), Chinese (1626 - 1706)

Title

Moon and Melon

Classification

Paintings with Calligraphy

Work Type

hanging scroll, painting with calligraphy

Date

1689

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China

Period

Qing dynasty, 1644-1911

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/202768

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Hanging scroll: ink on paper; with signature reading "Bada Shanren"

Dimensions

painting proper: H. 73.6 x W. 45.1 cm (29 x 17 3/4 in.)
mounting, including cord and roller ends: H. 209.6 x W. 65.4 cm (82 1/2 x 25 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Bada Shanren

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

A 10-019 (Suzuki Kei)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Earl Morse, Harvard Law School, Class of 1930

Accession Year

1964

Object Number

1964.94

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Zhu Da, better known as Bada Shanren, was born into the Yiyang branch of the Ming imperial family in 1626, in Nanchang, Jiangxi province. His work ineradicably changed the course of the history of Chinese painting more than almost any other artist. Despite this impact and his high birth, little is known of his life and even less of his motivations. It is almost certain that most of his family was killed during the dynastic wars at the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Zhu Da himself chose sanctuary in Buddhist monasteries, where he remained until the late 1670s. The Buddhist life allowed a person of his capacities tremendous freedom during the seventeenth century. He was able to pursue a quiet life of Buddhist teaching, poetry, and painting and calligraphy. Loyal to the Ming until his death, he refused to serve or even to acknowledge the Qing (1644-1911). The poem on this painting translates:

A Ming cake seen from one side,
The moon, so round when the melons rise.
Everyone points to the mooncakes,
But hope that the melons will ripen is a fool's dream.

Translation by Richard M. Barnhart

During the insurrection that brought about the downfall of the Mongol rule of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) in the fourteenth century, moon cakes were carried by the rebels as recognizable signs of their political allegiance. Although that earlier rebellion succeeded, Zhu Da seems to imply that no uprising against the Manchu Qing has a hope of success. Recent research has shown that the melon was also apparently a symbol of loyalty to the preceding dynasty and that, because of its many seeds, the melon was an embodiment of royal lineage.

Publication History

• Wang Fangyu 王方宇, "On the Poems of Chu Ta", National Palace Museum Quarterly, National Palace Museum, Taipei (Taipei, Taiwan, 1976), XI, No. 1, pp. 39-62, pp. 51-54, figs. 10a and 10b
• Suzuki Kei, Chugoku kaiga sogo zuroku, Amerika Kanada hen (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings, Volume 1: American and Canadian Collections), University of Tokyo Press (Tokyo, Japan, 1982), pp. I-55 and I-432, no. A 10-019
• Wang Fangyu 王方宇 and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: The Life and Art of Bada Shanren (1626-1705), exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn., 1990), pp. 104-106, fig. 52 (Cat. 8)
• Jane Myers, "Independent Creations: Kuniyoshi's Ink Drawings of 1921-25", exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth, Texas, 1996), Fig. 35 / page 57
• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 106
• Claudia Brown, Great Qing: Painting in China, 1644-1911, University of Washington Press (Seattle and London, 2014), pp. 29-30, fig. 1.26
• Dorinda Neave, Lara Blanchard, and Marika Sardar, Asian Art, Pearson Education, Inc. (Boston, MA, 2015), p. 216, ill. 9-28

Exhibition History

• Chinese Painting and Decorative Arts from the Permanent Collection, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/17/1991 - 01/26/1992
• Masterworks of East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/03/1995 - 06/09/1996
• A Compelling Legacy: Masterworks of East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/24/2004 - 03/20/2005
• China in Twelve Artworks, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/23/2016 - 05/08/2016

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project
• Collection Highlights

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