Ma Tao

[Chinese poetry] ‘Paintings in Poetry’, published 1885, 2 voll.

Name: [Chinese poetry] 'Paintings in Poetry', published 1885, 2 voll.
SKU: 67691
Price: 140.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

“Paintings in Poetry” composed by painter Ma Tao in the late Qing period (清 1644-1911). Lithograph copy published in the eleventh year of the reign of emperor Guangxu (光绪).

Divided into two volumes. The first is titled “Adjusting (painting and poetry) to achieve Moije’s great skill” (理臻摩诘). Moije is one of the pseudonyms of the most famous painter and poet of the Tang period (唐 618-907) Wang Wei (王维 699-759). Another famous poet of the time (Su Shi from the Song dinasty) said about Wang Wei that “his poems are paintings, and his paintings are poems” (诗中有画 […] 画中有诗), thus the title of Mao Tao’s collection: “Paintings in poetry” (诗中画).

The second volume “Painting landscapes in a moment of rest, filled with melancholic thoughts” (停云小愒画胜). This second volume contains also a preface by Xu Jali (徐家礼), a poet and a playwright of the Tongguangti poetic current (同光体) active between 1883 and 1886 in Beijing (which makes the preface to Ma Tao’s text plausibly coeval, contemporaneous, to these dates).

“Painting in Poetry” consists of 122 paintings (landscapes and portraits) each accompanied by one or two verses by a famous poet of the past.

Lithography on paper; vol. 1, 32 pp, vol. 2, 39 pp. Some staining, damp traces, though in very good condition. Original cassette cover with bone pin closure. Top closing of the cloth cover is detached.

SKU: 67691

We are grateful to prof. Giorgio Trentin of the department of Chinese and South Asian languages and literatures of the University of Macerata for his insights on these volumes.

€ 152,60 (€ 140,00 ex. btw)

In stock