Daoist immortals in a landscape

Unidentified artist

Not on view

This painting invites the viewer to follow a mountain path across a stone arch and into a magical realm where herb gatherers dressed in garments of leaves and grass mingle with robed gentlemen engaged in scholarly pleasures: viewing paintings, playing weiqi (go, in Japanese), strumming a zither, composing poetry, engaging in "pure conversation," and contemplating the scenery. The scroll ends with an imposing terrace for viewing the sky and a cave-an entrance to a Daoist grotto-heaven. Based on the two-character signature at the left edge of the scroll, the painting has been identified as the work of Shen Xiyuan, a late fourteenth-century practitioner of the Southern Song academic tradition of Ma Yuan (active ca. 1190–1225). But many of the figural and landscape details reflect the styles of such mid-sixteenth-century artists as Zhou Chen and Qiu Ying, suggesting that a more appropriate date for the scroll would be the later sixteenth or early seventeenth century.

Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China

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Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
Daoist immortals in a landscape, Unidentified artist Chinese, active 16th century, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.