MANNER OF XUE JI Elegant Gathering the Western Garden, 19th centuryMANNER OF XUE JIElegant Gathering the Western Garden, 19th century Ink and colour on silk, with spurious signature of the artist, glazed and framed. 45cm (17 3/4in) high x 300cm (118in) long.十九世紀 薛稷款 西園雅集 設色絹本 木框裝裱Despite the signature of Xue Ji (649-713), a famous Tang dynasty calligrapher, painter and politician, the subject matter of the present lot is based on an event that supposedly occurred in the Song dynasty. According to legend, in 1088 a group of sixteen famous statesmen, literati, and artists gathered in the Western Garden of Wang Shen, an Imperial son-in-law. The scholar and artist Mi Fu (1052–1107) purportedly wrote an account commemorating the occasion, and Li Gonglin (d.1106) is said to have painted a scene of the gathering. Regardless of whether this event indeed took place, it entered the cultural imagination and became both a model for later literary gatherings and a theme in painting. Here, the scholar Su Dongpo (1037-1101) is seated at one table practicing calligraphy while others look on. Further along the painting Mi Fu (1051-1107) stands with a brush in hand, inscribing a stone face.is_parse: 20230413image: yuzhan_bonhams_item.jpgsold_price_type: £