Lotus

This exquisite album of ink-lotuses is among the earliest surviving works by Bada Shanren. Painted while the artist was still living as a monk, the eight leaves bear many of his Buddhist names--such as Fajue, Chuanqi, and Ren'an--either in signatures or in seal impressions. Symbolizing Buddhist ideals of purity and rebirth, lotuses remained an important subject for Bada throughout his career, and he constantly varied his use of the flower as a compositional element.

Here he has left the center of most compositions void, with the plants seeming to dangle or thrust into the picture from outside the frame. Some commentators have suggested that such fragmentary images indicate that the world was imperfect in the eyes of this former prince, who was then living clandestinely under the alien Manchu regime. Whatever the validity of such a psychological reading, these paintings are a glowing testament to the enormous talent and creativity of this unique individual during his early years as an artist and presage his subsequent transition from a figure of Ming royalty turned Buddhist monk into a professional Qing-dynasty painter and calligrapher.