Mount Hua (1506): Art, History and Details

Mount Hua (1506) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Tang Yin (Chinese, 1470–1523).

The work and its context

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

In this work, Tang Yin accumulates towering mountain summits in the manner of the Sung master, Li Tang, to capture the monumental presence of his subject. Tang Yin’s angular brushstrokes and ink washes of varied intensity give texture to the rocky surface and accent the play of light. Mount Hua is situated in southern Shaanxi province in North China. Hardly accessible during Tang Yin’s time, the mountains were frequented by immortality seekers to dwell or collect herbal drugs there. Tang Yin's potentially brilliant career was shattered in 1499 after he went to the capital to take the jinshi examination. He got entangled in a bribery case that caused him to spend seven years in prison. After his release, Tang returned to Suzhou, and settled on a career as a professional painter. One of Tang's few dated works, Mount Hua was painted seven years after this incident.

Object facts

• Title: Mount Hua
• Date: 1506
• Creator attribution: Tang Yin (Chinese, 1470–1523)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 116.4 x 41.4 cm (45 13/16 x 16 5/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 213.5 x 66.7 cm (84 1/16 x 26 1/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1969.116

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pang, Yuanji 龐元濟. Xu zhai ming hua lu (16 juan) [虛齋名畫錄 (16卷) = Catalogue of paintings in the collection of the author]. Shanghai: Xuantong ji you, 1909.
• Ōmura, Seigai 大村西崖. Bunjin gasen 文人畫選. Tōkyō: Enseisha, 1922.
• Naitō, Torajirō 內藤虎次郎. Min shitaika gafu 明四大家畫譜. Ōsaka: Hakubundō Gōshi Kaisha, 1924.

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.