Important panel-mounted painting on silk, China, late Ming period (1368-1644) Ink and pigments on silk depicting a standing Chinese civil dignitary holding an audience tablet (hu) in front of his chest, dressed in a loose red ceremonial robe with wide sleeves edged with black stripes. The figure wears a long black beard and a rigid official headdress of the liángguān (ribbed crown) type, characterized by an ornate frontal band and several vertical arches indicating a high administrative rank. The attitude, ceremonial dress and attribute of the tablet allude to the traditional iconography of mandarin portraits of the imperial bureaucracy, made to commemorate or honor an official during court ceremonies or as part of ancestral worship. A silk headband has been added above. It is adorned with an inscription in four archaic sigillary characters 靖節遺像 which can be translated as "Posthumous Portrait of Master Jingjie" this name almost always refers to the famous Chinese poet Tao Yuanming (陶淵明, 365-427), whose posthumous name was 靖節先生 ("Master Jingjie"). It is not confirmed that the inscription is related to the figure depicted, as the blindfold has been added and the status of the painted figure is not related to that of a poet. 228 x 90 cm