Birds Gather under the Spring Willow (late 1400s–early 1500): Art, History and Details

Birds Gather under the Spring Willow (late 1400s–early 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Yin Hong (Chinese, c. 1430-c. 1500).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This scroll depicts a spring scene with all kinds of birds, including one peacock with a hen among peonies. The painting is one of four surviving works by Yin Hong bearing his signature and seals. Some scholars debate whether this work depicts the theme “One Hundred Birds admiring the Phoenix,” a metaphor for human society presenting an idealized hierarchy under imperial rule; other scholars argue that peafowls, as exotic birds not native to China, would not be depicted to represent the emperor. This large painting might have been hung in a palace hall and may have been part of a set depicting the four seasons.

Object facts

• Title: Birds Gather under the Spring Willow
• Date: late 1400s–early 1500
• Creator attribution: Yin Hong (Chinese, c. 1430-c. 1500)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Painting: 240 x 195.5 cm (94 1/2 x 76 15/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 280 x 204 cm (110 1/4 x 80 5/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1974.31

A detail from the museum

The peahen is plucking a dandelion.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Satake Koshaku-ke gozoki nyusatsu [佐竹候爵家御蔵噐入札 = Sale Catalogue of the Collection of the Marquis Satake Family], Tōkyō Bijutsu Club, November 3-5, 1917.
• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1974.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 3 (March 1975): 62–102.
• Lee, Sherman E. “Early Ming Painting at the Imperial Court.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 62, no. 8, 1975, pp. 243–259.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.