Returning Herder and Water Buffalo, After Rain

Description

Returning Herder and Water Buffalo, After Rain
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
13th century
Album leaf mounted as hanging scroll, ink on silk
Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret Watson Parker Art Collection
Fund, 1965/2.70

The ability to capture a moment with precise naturalism is characteristic of the professional painters traditionally associated with the imperial academy in the Southern Song dynasty. Although the buffalo and the herd boy in this work are small, aspects of their anatomy are well defined, and both the fallen reeds and fluttering tree tops enhance the vivid impression of an evening storm. The sense of returning is subtly evoked by the suggestion of a female figure waiting in the doorway.

An inscription on the lacquer box that houses this painting mistakenly attributes it to the great twelfth-century painter Li Tang (circa 1070–circa 1150). The painting traveled to Japan as early as the late fifteenth century, where it entered the collection of Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1435–90), the eighth shogun (military ruler) in the Ashikaga clan. The attribution may have been made by one of Yoshimasa's art advisors, based on an imperfect knowledge of Li Tang’s work and a desire to improve the pedigree of an unsigned painting.