Harvard Griffin GSAS PhD student Icey Lin explores Moon and Melon, a seventeenth-century painting by the Chinese artist Bada Shanren held at the Harvard Art Museums. By closely examining the pairing of two circular forms rendered through different textures and techniques, Lin shows how the painting reflects themes of change, illusion, and impermanence. Highlighting how Bada’s brushwork and calligraphy engage Buddhist ways of seeing while quietly responding to dynastic transition, Lin suggests that the work reveals Bada’s profound reflections on the nature of change, attuned to cosmic rhythms and life cycles.
The Art of the PhD video series showcases often hidden masterpieces in Harvard’s visual arts collection, revealed and explained by the doctoral students who study them.
