Album of Landscape Paintings Illustrating Old Poems: Listening to the Qin
1745
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1745
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
This scroll shows a man in pink robes sitting under pines, fingers on a seven-stringed qin zither. His quiet figure blends into misty mountains. The painting links music and nature, a common idea in old Chinese art. Hua Yan painted this in 1745 for a book of poems. The man’s pink robe stands out against the green trees. His focus on the qin suggests calm and balance. See how soft the ink blends? That’s called *sfumato*—colors melt together without hard lines.
