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Mountain Landscape in Moonlight
1200s
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Image: 54.3 x 36 cm (21 3/8 x 14 3/16 in.); Overall: 139.6 x 41.4 cm (54 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) to Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Painted in modulated monochrome ink washes with dark dots for foliate accents, the anonymous artist successfully suggests the dense atmosphere of a warm summer night. Under a full moon a scholar rides a mule, accompanied by a servant who carries his belongings. The poem inscribed by Chan (Zen) priest Yunfeng Miaogao identifies the figure as the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu 杜甫 (712–770).
Who rides Du [Fu]'s mule: Through the universe his name resounds. Chanting poems as he rides off on his mule, How quickly does he become drunk with Heaven and Earth!
