Red Lotus and Fish Tang Guang This large hanging scroll painting places the viewer at the edge of a lotus pond at the height of summer. Lotus blossoms stretch skyward from the water on their improbably thin stems, some in full bloom, some still tightly wrapped. Around them, enormous, heavy green lotus leaves provide a counterpoint to the pinks and reds of the blossoms. In the clear water beneath the flowers, a school of fish darts amid water grasses beneath lily pads.Tang Guangs name is little recorded in Chinese painting history, but this work reveals that he was a sensitive practitioner of the Piling School manner of flower painting, named for Tangs hometown (also known as Changzhou). Painters in Changzhou were known for closely cropped vignettes of meticulously painted flowers, especially lotus blossoms, from at least the thirteenth century. In the seventeenth century, the painters Yun Shouping (1633-1690) and Jiang Tingxi (1669-1732) reinvigorated this tradition, adding more volu