Mt. Dong (Grotto Mountain), by Song Xu, c. 1588
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Mt. Dong (Grotto Mountain)

Song Xu (Chinese, 1525-c. 1606)

c. 1588

Medium
Album leaf; ink and color on silk
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Sheet: 26.4 x 28.4 cm (10 3/8 x 11 3/16 in.)
Culture
China, Jiaxing, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
Credit line
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase 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

This album of landscape paintings depicts the famous scenic areas located in and around the city of Wuxing in southeastern China. These places were all known for their natural beauty, but in addition, a number were distinguished by their links to eminent historical figures and events. The artist, Song Xu, was not a native of Wuxing, but must have visited it when he accepted the commission, for he carefully depicted all eighteen views and wrote comments on each of them.

Song's gazetteer-like notation on this leaf reads: Grotto Mountain: Five li northwest of Hexi, there are two streams converging; Hexi (literally converging streams) is derived from this. The cave can hold a hundred people.