During the second half of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), as rocks became important emblems of scholarly status, numerous "portraits" of rocks celebrated the eccentricities of both artist and patron. Complementing the flamboyant pictorial images of rocks in this portion of the exhibition were equally fantastic actual specimens that closely correspond with the aesthetic ideals celebrated in painted examples. Three extraordinary rocks—Mountain with Grottoes, Rock with Large Perforations, and Rock with Peaks and Grottoes were exhibited near two related paintings, Red Friend by Lan Ying (1583–ca. 1664) and the spectacular Ten Views of a Fantastic Rock by Wu Bin (active ca. 1583–1626).

The materialistic culture of the late Ming, with its overheated art market, collapsed with the conquest of China by the Manchus in 1644. Artists who were loyal to the fallen Ming isolated themselves from the world of politics by returning to the natural world for inspiration, adopting bold kinesthetic brush styles that not only influenced such later artists as the eighteenth-century group of Yangzhou painters known as the Eight Eccentrics but also have remained popular among modern Chinese painters as well. In the same way, the eccentric styles of scholars' rocks established in the seventeenth century have continued to influence connoisseurs down to the present time.