Flowers and Rocks (1368–1644): Art, History and Details

Flowers and Rocks (1368–1644) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Here, the painter uses delicate brushwork and vivid colors to depict an early summer scene of three kinds of flowers growing beside a garden rock: From top to bottom we see flowering pomegranate, then peonies, and lilies below. Like the peony, which conveys wishes for wealth and prosperity, the pomegranate flower, here in festive red color turning soon into fruit with many seeds, is associated with the wish for many sons. The lily, in Chinese "baihe," is a homophone with the pun "togetherness for a hundred years," expressing wishes for harmony and unity. The scroll would have made a suitable gift to married women.

Object facts

• Title: Flowers and Rocks
• Date: 1368–1644
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 162.6 x 48.6 cm (64 x 19 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1915.116

Collection credit

Gift of Charles L. Freer

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.