Graceful demeanour and eloquence

Artist: He Zhen (1535-1604)

Date: 1604, the 31^st year of the Wanli reign, Ming (1368-1644)

Dimensions: Length 4.05 cm, Width 3.9 cm, Height 7.1 cm

Material: Qingtian stone

• Object Type：
  • SEAL
• Location：
  • Chinese Seal Gallery
• Tag：
  • he zhen 1604 wanli reign ming qingtian stone

This work of He Zhen is one of the very few extant raw gemstone seal carvings. The cutting is straight and forceful, with strong marks at the starting and ending of the strokes, rendering sharp and momentous effect. The carving is cool and composed, showing very distinctive personality. The owner of this seal was Zhu Zhibo, a great writer of the Ming dynasty. The script of the seal implies that his talent shown in his speeches was as wonderful as the rainbow in the sky.