|
|
Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings
|
|
 
|
|
北宋 傳屈鼎 夏山圖 卷
Attributed to Qu Ding (active ca. 1023–ca. 1056)
Summer Mountains
Handscroll; ink and pale color on silk; 17 7/8 x 45 3/8 in. (45.3 x 115.2 cm)
Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 (1973.120.1)
See an alternate view of this artwork.
|
|
|
Between the years 900 and 1100, Chinese painters created visions of landscape that "depicted the vastness and multiplicity" of creation itself. The viewer of these works is meant to identify with a human figure in the painting, so he may "walk through, ramble, or dwell" in the landscape. In Summer Mountains, lush forests suffused with mist identify the time as a midsummer evening. Moving from right to left, travelers make their way toward a temple retreat where vacationers are seated together enjoying the view. Above the temple roofs the central mountain sits in commanding majesty, the ultimate climax to man's universe. The advanced use of texture strokes and ink wash suggests that Summer Mountains, formerly attributed to Yan Wengui (active ca. 970–1030), is by a master working in the Yan idiom about 1050, a date corroborated by the presence of collectors' seals belonging to the Song emperor Huizong (r. 1101–25). Although there is no record of paintings by Yan Wengui in Huizong's collection, three works entitled Summer Scenery by Yan's eleventh-century follower Qu Ding are listed in the emperor's painting catalogue.
|
|
|
Back to main page for this exhibition
Back to images from this exhibition
