Artist: Ma Lin (Chinese, ca. 1180– after 1256)
Period: Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
Date: second quarter of the 13th century
Culture: China
Medium: Album leaf; ink and color on silk
Dimensions: Image: 10 7/16 x 8 7/8 in. (26.5 x 22.5 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973
Accession Number: 1973.120.10
Description
This exquisite representation of an orchid, signed by Ma Lin, son of Ma Yuan (act. ca. 1190-1225), exemplifies the style of formal realism favored by the aristocratic Southern Song court. The simple asymmetrical balance of flowers and leaves, meticulously rendered in subtle shades of lavender, white, and malachite green, bespeaks a consciously aestheticizing sensibility. Such flower paintings recall late Southern Song lyric poems about flowers.