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Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Search the Mountain: Leaf 48

Unknown

1204

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Ming Painting Medieval Mythology

Dominant colour

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Search the Mountain: Leaf 48 is a 1204 unspecified by Unknown, a Ming Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1204 · Ming Painting
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a tiny ink painting of a god in armor, sword raised, fighting a demon on a rocky cliff. This leaf is one of fifty in a teaching album from a 1200s Chinese workshop. Artists copied these pages to learn how to paint gods and hell scenes for temple walls. The lines are quick and sure—no second thoughts. To see more of these small, sharp drawings, look up china, southern song dynasty (1127-1279).

The story of this work

Overview

This extraordinary album has 50 paintings on a variety of religious subjects. They were likely created by several master craftsmen to share with studio apprentices as models for fulfilling commissions. The Jade Emperor and the Daoist pantheon make up the first 26 leaves. The next 14 leaves portray the Buddhist Ten Kings of Hell administering punishments to the dead. The third section, called “Clearing the Mountains,” features divine soldiers, led presumably by the deity Erlang Shen 二郎神, fighting undesirable creatures.