Herdboys and Buffalo in Landscapes
Guo Min (Chinese, mid-late 1200s)
1200s
- Medium
- Pair of hanging scrolls; ink on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 92.7 x 56.5 cm (36 1/2 x 22 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- China, Qixian, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance 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
Herdboys tend their buffalo in a bucolic landscape by a winding stream. Guo Min emphasizes the massive forms and mighty power of the animals, transforming them into forces of nature.
The poem in the first scroll reads: "The bulls are engaging in fighting, Cautiously, each seeks to overcome the other. The herdboy calmly stands by. Untying his belt, he silently watches."
The poem in the second scroll reads: "Together, they wade through the middle of the stream, Mindless of perils in the journey. The grass grows tall in the village ahead, While the mist and rain spread far and wide."
