According to legend, in 1088 a group of sixteen famous statesmen, literati, and artists gathered in the Western Garden of Wang Shen, an imperial son-in-law. The scholar and artist Mi Fu (1052–1107) purportedly wrote an account commemorating the occasion, and Li Gonglin (d. 1106) is said to have painted a scene of the gathering. Regardless of whether this event indeed took place, it entered the cultural imagination and became both a model for later literary gatherings and a theme in painting. Here, the scholar Su Shi is seated at one table practicing calligraphy while Wang Shen and others look on. At another table, Li Gonglin paints a scene taken from literature. Behind them, Mi Fu stands with a brush in hand, inscribing a stone face, and across a bridge a Buddhist sits in a bamboo grove engaged in a discussion on Nirvana.
","remarks":"Asian_InTheGarden_Dec2013.pdf"}],"datebegin":1368,"sortnumber":"1947 220y","published_date":"2026-02-11 09:42:59.881822","objectid":22155,"dimensions":"Painting: 176 x 91 cm. (69 5/16 x 35 13/16 in.)\r\nMount: 316 x 100.9 cm. (124 7/16 x 39 3/4 in.)","on_view":false}