Lou Guan / Xie An at East Mountain / Southern Song to Yuan period, late 13th centuryLou Guan
Xie An at East Mountain
Southern Song to Yuan period, late 13th century

View Larger Image

View Full Catalog Record Below



This image is one of over 108,000 from the AMICA Library (formerly The Art Museum Image Consortium Library- The AMICO Library™), a growing online collection of high-quality, digital art images from over 20 museums around the world. www.davidrumsey.com/amica offers subscriptions to this collection, the finest art image database available on the internet. EVERY image has full curatorial text and can be studied in depth by zooming into the smallest details from within the Image Workspace.
 
Preview the AMICA Library™ Public Collection in Luna Browser Now

  • Cultures and time periods represented range from contemporary art, to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian works.
  • Types of works include paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures, costumes, jewelry, furniture, prints, photographs, textiles, decorative art, books and manuscripts.

Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com .



Creator Name: Lou Guan
Creator Qualifier: Attributed to
Creator Nationality: Asian; Far East Asian; Chinese
Creator Dates/Places: Active mid- to late 13th century
Creator Name-CRT: Lou Guan
Title: Xie An at East Mountain
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1267
Creation End Date: 1299
Creation Date: Southern Song to Yuan period, late 13th century
Creation Place: China
Object Type: Paintings
Materials and Techniques: Ink and slight color on silk
Parts and Pieces: hanging scroll
Dimensions: 69 x 34 3/4 in. (175.3 x 88.3 cm)
AMICA Contributor: Asia Society
Owner Location: New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 1979.123
Credit Line: Asia Society: The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection
Rights: http://www.asiasociety.org
Context: Since at least the Northern Song period (960-1126), landscape paintings have played a critical role in Chinese art, culture, and thought, and they have been imbued with many interrelated levels of meaning. Landscape paintings have been seen as metaphors for religious and personal development, as statements of individual or cultural values, and as political icons, and they were an important means of communication among educated individuals, particularly the group of artists who have traditionally been classified as literati or scholar-gentlemen (wenjen). The perfection of this art form in the hands of these literati artists has been understood to reflect the self-cultivation and depth of knowledge of this group of painters.

This painting, entitled Xie An at East Mountain and attributed to the artist Lou Guan, combines the monumentality and intimacy typical of Chinese landscape painting. The composition includes three different points of view: the foreground is seen from above; the middle ground is seen straight ahead; and the background is seen from below. This tripartite perspective, a salient feature of Chinese landscapes, allows the painting to convey more information than would be available by merely presenting a given landscape from a single viewpoint. In this painting, it also enhances the sense of monumentality.

A more intimate tradition of Chinese landscape painting is invoked, however, in the placement of the figures, one in the left middle ground and the others on a diagonal in the right foreground. This compositional device was used to direct the viewer's attention to a specific area within a broader composition. The monumental tradition is generally associated with the art of the Northern Song period, while the more intimate style was begun at the Southern Song court (1126-1279). The interplay between these two compositional devices lies at the heart of subsequent Chinese landscape painting, and both were reused and redefined over th
Related Document Description: Suzuki, Kei, and Richard Barnhart. Painters of the Great Ming: The Imperial Court and the Zhe School. Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 36-37.
Related Document Description: Asia Society. Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. New York: Asia Society, [1981], p. 57.
Related Document Description: Cahill, James. An Index of Early Chinese Painters and Painting: T'ang, Sung, and Yüan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980, p. 141.
Related Document Description: Mowry, Robert D. 'Figures in a Mountain Landscape: An Attribution to Lou Guan.' Apollo (November 1983), pp. 384-93.
Related Document Description: Suzuki, Kei. Kaigai Shozai Chugoku Kaiga Mokuroku: Amerika-Kanada (A Catalogue of Chinese Paintings in Foreign Collections: America-Canada). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Institute of Oriental Studies, 1977, p. 19.
Related Document Description: Suzuki, Kei. Chugoku Kaiga Sogo Zuroku (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Paintings), vol. 1, America and Canadian Collections. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1982, pp. I-90, I-438.
AMICA ID: ASIA.1979.123
AMICA Library Year: 1998
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright, Asia Society

AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder.

Home | Subscribe | Preview | Benefits | About | Help | Contact
Copyright © 2007 Cartography Associates.
All rights reserved.