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Nine Songs
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Painted in the baimiao , or fine-line drawing style, this ancient work demonstrates the literati’s use of abstract calligraphic brushwork for self-expression. The subject of the “Nine Songs”—songs associated with shamanistic rituals in the ancient Chu kingdom—had traditionally provided artists with myths and legends that they could explore and reinterpret in their own works.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineNine Songs (九歌圖), 1361. Zhang Wo (Chinese, active c.1336–after 1364), calligraphy by Chu Huan (Chinese, active 1361). Handscroll; ink on paper; overall: 28 x 438.2 cm (11 x 172 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1959.138
