Mountain Landscape in Moonlight (1200s): Art, History and Details

Mountain Landscape in Moonlight (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Painted in modulated monochrome ink washes with dark dots for foliate accents, the anonymous artist successfully suggests the dense atmosphere of a warm summer night. Under a full moon a scholar rides a mule, accompanied by a servant who carries his belongings. The poem inscribed by Chan (Zen) priest Yunfeng Miaogao identifies the figure as the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu 杜甫 (712–770). Who rides Du [Fu]'s mule: Through the universe his name resounds. Chanting poems as he rides off on his mule, How quickly does he become drunk with Heaven and Earth!

Object facts

• Title: Mountain Landscape in Moonlight
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) to Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 54.3 x 36 cm (21 3/8 x 14 3/16 in.); Overall: 139.6 x 41.4 cm (54 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1987.37

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby’s New York. Fine Chinese Paintings. 2 June 1987 sale.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.

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.