The Wangchuan Villa
Ming or Qing dynasty, 17th–18th century
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Chauncey McCormick
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Wangchuan Villa was the retreat of the famous poet Wang Wei (699–759); the site was located on the outskirts of Chang’an (now Xi’an), capital of the Tang dynasty (618–970). Wang Wei converted part of his estate into a Buddhist temple after his mother’s death and painted a panoramic view of the Wang-chuan Villa on its walls. Although the temple was destroyed during the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism (841–45), the original mural has inspired artists for more than a thousand years. This handscroll painting is based on a stone engraving from 1617, the image that became the most widely accepted model for representations of Wangchuan Villa.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
