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Hunting on Horses
c. 1600s–1700s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 276 x 147.5 cm (108 11/16 x 58 1/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 380 x 184 cm (149 5/8 x 72 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This large-scale hanging scroll depicts a party hunting for waterfowl along a riverbank in the springtime. The leader is distinguished from the other five mounted hunters by his purple robe with golden dragon patterns and his white horse with a red tassel. He and his horse maintain still, dignified postures as a small white falcon captures one of the wild geese.
Equestrian pursuits and hunting were particularly popular among the Khitan (also spelled “Qidan”) and Jurchen, ethnic groups who lived along China’s northeastern border. Their nomadic lifestyle intrigued the Chinese court and inspired Chinese artists to develop a painting genre showing them hunting.
