December 2007
Asian Court Rotation
This is the story of an ascetic whose neighbor is a merchant of oil and honey. Each day, the merchant supplied the ascetic with these items, and the ascetic stored some of the oil and honey that he did not consume in jars. The illustration shows the ascetic musing on his future, thinking that he could sell this excess oil and honey to procure a wife, from whom he could sire a son, whom he could discipline if necessary with a stick. As the ascetic becomes absorbed by these thoughts, he inadvertently takes up the stick and accidentally breaks one of the jars, spilling its contents all over himself. The story is narrated by a wife to her husband as a metaphor for conveying that making conjectures without verifiable certainties is fraught with pitfalls and will end in remorse. This remarkably early, dated work is painted in a loose, spontaneous style and has vivid, transparent colors, mainly red and yellow, with large flowers filling the empty spaces.
Last Updated: 9/5/2017