EG 112 · Paintings & Calligraphy

Running-Script Calligraphy, Handscroll

Chinese calligraphy, handscroll

A long handscroll of running-script calligraphy on toned paper, opening with eight large seal-script characters on gold-flecked green and closing with a colophon on salmon paper.

Calligraphy is the most prized of the Chinese arts and the hardest for a newcomer to read, which is no reason not to live with it. Unrolled, this scroll is a river of dark ink on brown paper, fast and cursive, with round red seals punctuating it. The frontispiece in slow seal script is the counterweight.

Like the bamboo scroll it is meant for a table, not a wall. The two make a natural pair for someone building a scholar's corner.

Described as we find it: calligraphy on toned paper with seals. We have not identified the text or the hand, and we make no claim about age or authorship.