The Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup
later 1700s
Medium
six-panel folding screen, ink and cut-gold foil on paper
Dimensions
painting only: 120 × 352.2 cm · including mounting: 137.5 × 369.6 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1976.11.2
Tags
About this artwork
Responding to the desires of the middle class (chonin), some Japanese painters of the late Edo period moved away from the seriousness associated with the Chinese theme of reclusion, focusing instead on the motif’s humorous aspects. The theme Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup is based on a poem by the renowned 8th-century Chinese poet Du Fu about his eight colleagues. These scholars eagerly sought release from their official governmental duties and then supposedly fled the capital for the countrysi...