Chinese Landscape
Unknown Artist
1500s
Medium
Pair of six-fold screens; ink and slight color on paper
Dimensions
171.5 × 373.4 cm · image: 155.5 × 357.8 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Collection
Accession Number
1964.279
About this artwork
In a panorama of mountains and expanses of water, three gentlemen have assembled by moonlight to enjoy one another’s company away from a bustling village. An influx of ink paintings from China in both album and scroll formats beginning in the late 1200s inspired Japanese artists to create landscapes based upon Chinese prototypes. Later, Japanese painters adapted the imagery to the larger format of folding screens, which were used to define spaces in large rooms.