Scenes from The Story of the Western Wing

Object Details

• Artist

  Traditionally attributed to Qiu Ying 仇英 (ca. 1494-1552)

• Label

  In Chinese literature, gardens sometimes serve as a setting for romantic assignations. The scene illustrates an episode in a popular love story, which became the subject of a play titled The Story of the Western Wing. While touring a Buddhist temple, an aspiring young scholar stumbles across two female lodgers, Oriole (Cui Yingying) and her maid Crimson (Hongniang), and he becomes immediately enamored with Oriole. Having received a suggestive written response to his overtures, he scales the wall of Oriole's garden one night. There, Crimson waits to lead him to her mistress, who plans to scold the youth for his forwardness. With its trellised flowering vines, broad-leafed banana trees, and large decorative rock, the temple courtyard is indistinguishable from one found in a typical domestic compound and lends the composition a sense of intimacy.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Women in Chinese Painting (November 9, 2013 to April 27, 2014)

  East of Eden: Gardens in Asian Art (February 24 to May 13, 2007)

  Tales of the Brush: Literary Masterpieces in Chinese Painting (July 28, 2007 to January 13, 2008)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1890s

• Name

  Qiu, Ying

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Blue-and-green style, Art, Chinese Art, Gardens, Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Animals, Bananas, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Horses, Rocks, The Story of the Western Wing, Woman

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings