Good News In History, October 19
Good News In History, October 19 5 years ago today, the high-profile sale of a Ming Dynasty artwork brought the world not only into contact with the most remarkable painting of a stone ever made, but also the depth of the Chinese relationship with the natural world. Called Ten Views of Lingbi Rock, the painting sold for $77 million at auction, the highest ever for a Chinese classical painting. READ all about the painting… (2020) One of the ten views of Lingbi Rock – fair use In 1610, the professional painter Wu Bin (c. 1543–c. 1626) completed a painting of a stone after spending a month examining it. The commission for the painting was from the prominent official, calligrapher, and collector Mi Wanzhong (1570–1628). The scroll contains ten near-life-size renditions of one particular stone that Mi acquired sometime between 1608 and 1610. Mi Wanzhong actually wrote about watching his friend Wu Bin paint and seemed as fascinated by Wu as by Wu’s painting, seeing from him that Wu had merged h…
