Calligraphy in Small Seal Script (Xiao Zhuanshu), with an excerpt from A Commentary to the Classic of Waterways Artist: Qian Dian (Chinese, 1744–1806)

1798

Asian Art

By appointment, Wurtele Study Center

Qian Dian exemplifies the eighteenth-century fascination with ancient scripts that played a critical role in the development of Chinese calligraphy and painting in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A collector of the ritual bronze vessels that preserve some of China’s earliest writing systems, Qian was famous for his seal carving as well as his calligraphy. In this work, which quotes a passage from a third-century C.E. text commenting on an earlier geographic treatise on rivers and canals, Qian reinvigorated the "iron-wire line" found on Tang-dynasty stone inscriptions, highlighting curved rather than angular lines in his writing.

Medium

Handscroll: ink on paper

Dimensions

with mounting: 15 1/2 in. (39.37 cm)
without mounting: 14 3/4 × 256 1/2 in. (37.47 × 651.51 cm)

Credit Line

Collection of H. Christopher Luce, B.A. 1972

Accession Number

2018.78.12

Geography

China

Culture

Chinese

Period

Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Classification

Calligraphy

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
H. Christopher Luce, New York; given to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2017
Bibliography
  • "Selected Acquisitions," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2018), 106, ill
  • "Acquisitions July 1, 2017–June 30, 2018," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin: Online Supplement (accessed December 1, 2018), 16
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

calligraphy

Inscriptions

Jiaqing san nian 1798 7th month 15th day.

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