Album of Miscellaneous Subjects, Leaf 4
1654
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1654
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Album of Miscellaneous Subjects, Leaf 4 is a 1654 unspecified by Fan Qi, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a small, quiet mountain scene: jagged rocks, a waterfall, and mist hiding the peaks. The artist left empty space where people should be—just like the old poem it quotes. The poem says you can hear voices, but no one is there. The painting does the same: the mist feels like a voice you almost catch. Look up more works from china, qing dynasty (1644-1911) to see how artists played with empty spaces.
The fourth painting by Fan Qi alludes to Wang Wei's poetic lines: In empty hills, there is no one there; Yet one can hear the sound of conversation. The calligraphic colophon by Xu Fang adjacent to the painting reads: By chance, I start my journey from the watershed to remote regions, Suddenly I see the silhouette of mountains, myriad expanses of green. What is this Feilai Peak which now does not recede? Its rocky walls, linked to heaven, are drenched by a waterfall.
There is no sign of human presence in this sunny landscape dominated by a bold flat-topped cliff.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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