Leisure Enough to Spare (1360): Art, History and Details

Leisure Enough to Spare (1360) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Yao Tingmei (Chinese, active mid-1300s).

The work and its context

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

Seclusion and leisure—the ideals of the literati, or scholar-gentlemen—are expressed in this mature work by Yao Tingmei. The theme acquired special meaning at a time of the military uprisings near the end of the Yuan dynasty. Dedicated to an ascetic named Du, this work combines painting, calligraphy, and poetry; following the painting are more than 20 poems and essays written by notable scholars, one of whom was the calligrapher Yang Weizhen. It reveals not only the aesthetic taste of the literati but also the practice of contributing artistic and literary works to fulfill social obligations. Yao's painting demonstrates his individual style derived from various ancient masters (Guo Xi, Dong Yuan, and Juran). Yang Weizhen's calligraphy exhibits his bold, vigorous style and his intent to capture the spirit of antiquity in art.

Object facts

• Title: Leisure Enough to Spare
• Date: 1360
• Creator attribution: Yao Tingmei (Chinese, active mid-1300s)
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: handscroll; ink on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 23.1 x 84 cm (9 1/8 x 33 1/16 in.); Overall: 23.8 x 734 cm (9 3/8 x 289 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1954.791

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ferguson, John C 福開森. Li dai zhu lu hua mu 歷代著錄畵目. Nanjing: Chin-ling University, Zhong guo wen hua yan jiu suo 金陵大學中國文化硏究所, 1934.
• Zheng, Zhenduo 鄭振鐸. Tang Song yi lai ming hua ji: Yun hui zhai cang 唐宋以来名畫集: 韞輝齋藏. Shanghai: Shanghai chu ban gong si, 1947.
• Chen, Rentao 陳仁濤 [J.D. Chen] and Xu Rong 徐鎔. Jin gui lun gu chu ji [金匱論古初集 = Essays on Chinese antiquities - The first album of King-Kwei's collection with explanations]. Hong Kong: Chen Rentao, 1952.

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.