Landscape (1644–1911): Art, History and Details

Landscape (1644–1911) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A mountain scenery surrounded by water and fish is meticulously carved out of soapstone, with a pond, bridge, waterfall, and temple front in its center. The unidentified figure scene on the left includes an ox and a man wearing what appears to be a Korean hat. A Buddha figure hidden in the depth of the temple can be glimpsed from the backside. The inscribed pillar on the right reads “Stonegate Cave to Heaven (shimen dongtian)”. Indentations all over the stone suggest that the miniature mountain was once adorned with precious stones and metal, presumably representing an earthly paradise to which one could escape in one’s mind and imagination.

Object facts

• Title: Landscape
• Date: 1644–1911
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
• Type: Stone
• Technique: soapstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 15.3 x 22.3 x 9.6 cm (6 x 8 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1917.25

A detail from the museum

A waterfall plummets down the cliff by the temple and then flows smoothly down to join the river at the front of the landscape scene.

Collection credit

Worcester R. Warner Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.