Landscape with Woodcutters Returning Home
Unknown Artist
1200s
Medium
hanging scroll, ink on silk
Dimensions
203.2 × 81.3 cm · image: 124.5 × 58.3 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
1988.20
About this artwork
In late Song dynasty Chinese Chan Buddhist temples, paintings of landscapes, animals, or plants frequently took the place of deities. This hanging scroll features the humble life of woodcutters in nature an is in keeping with the Chan emphasis on simplicity and on the spiritual benefits of manual labor. executed in broad, quickly applied washes and punctuated by dark dots and texture strokes, the work is inscribed by Xuzhou Pudu, a priest at Wanshou temple near the Southern Song capital at Lin'a...