Cranes

This painting is not signed, with only one seal showing "Ting Zhen" which was the courtesy name of the Ming artist Lu Ji (ca. 1475-1503). Lu, whose pseudonym was Leyu, was a court painter during the Hongzhi era (1487-1505) celebrated for paintings of flowers and birds after old masters. This painting, in which the trees and rocks are shown with precision, the cranes emanating vitality thanks to rich uses of colours, is a representative work of the court painting academy in the mid-Ming period.