Ode to the Pomegranate and Melon Vine, ca. 1506-09
Shen Zhou (1427-1509) and Wang Ao (1450-1524)
Chinese, Ming dynasty
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb
40.161

This collaborative effort by two talented friends working at the height of their creative powers, the famous painter Shen Zhou and the scholar and great statesman Wang Ao, was executed for their mutual friend Wu Chunhong. Shen's soft colored washes interspersed with vigorous spiked brushstrokes are the perfect complement to Wang's poem, which he executed in the sweeping grass cursive style.

The subjects for both painting and poem are the pomegranate branch laden with ripe bursting fruit and the swiftly growing, highly productive melon vine (known in English as a loofa). These two plants, both symbols of fecundity, carry the wish that Wu might be blessed with a long hoped-for son.