Landscapes in Various Styles after Old Masters

1690

Landscapes in Various Styles after Old Masters, 1690. Mei Qing (Chinese, 1623–1697). Album leaf: ink and color on paper; overall: 28.6 x 44 cm (11 1/4 x 17 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1962.157.8 This leaf presents a rising promontory in the near distance, whose base is hidden by a dense grove of barren, autumnal trees. A gentle incline emerges from the lower right, with a small path leading to its summit, where a gentleman is sheltered from the wind by two pines. This promontory resembles Guangming Ding 光明頂 (Summit of the Bright and Luminous), the second tallest peak in Huangshan 黃山 (Mt. Huang or Yellow Mountain), the scenic area that inspired much of Mei Qing’s artistic production. Instead of looking down on the “Sea of Clouds,” though, as one who scales Huangshan’s peak would, this gentleman is looking out at two boats on an actual sea.