Liang Kai served as a painter-in-attendance at the Song painting academy in Hangzhou from about 1201 to 1204; he later relinquished that prestigious position to live and paint at a Chan (or Zen, in Japanese) Buddhist temple. Like his best known paintings, preserved mostly in Japanese collections, this small landscape conveys a spiritual intensity typical of Liang's works. Under the great cliff, in the stillness of the landscape, a solitary figure meditates on the illusory world before him.

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