Miniature Mountain with Daoist Paradise (1736–95): Art, History and Details

Miniature Mountain with Daoist Paradise (1736–95) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Sizable jade boulders of mountainous landscapes were carved to represent the search for the paradise or immortals' dwellings in the mountains. This Daoist theme has fired the Chinese imagination throughout history. Believed to have spiritual and magical properties, jade has long been used in tombs and intended for preserving the corporeal body and the soul in the quest for eternity. It is recorded that Daoist practitioners drank morning dews with scraps of jade as an elixir of immortality.

Object facts

• Title: Miniature Mountain with Daoist Paradise
• Date: 1736–95
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign (1736–95)
• Type: Jade
• Technique: green jade with brown markings
• Dimensions: Overall: 17.5 cm (6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1941.594

A detail from the museum

The bearded immortal is accompanied by a servant carrying a cluster of peaches, symbols of immortality.

Collection credit

Anonymous Memorial Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard. "Three Ch'ien Lung Jades." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 8 (October 1942): 123–124.
• Watson, William. L'Art de l'Ancienne Chine. Paris: Mazenod, 1979.
• Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China : the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988 = [Chʻien Ching]. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988.

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.