Seduction I

A series of late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century paintings by Wang Sheng adorn the gallery wall. Each delicately coloured image is accompanied by a poem.

A young Chinese woman straddles her lover who lies on an ornate rug under a willow tree. Behind them, a cherry tree blossoms.

The Milky Way sits low on the horizon;
two spirits are anxious to cross it…
Filled with desire, they have embraces but nothing else,
and could never survive separation.

Changri