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Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Search the Mountain: Leaf 45

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 45 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 swinging a sword at a demon in a rocky cave. This leaf is one of fifty in a teaching album—like a medieval PowerPoint deck. Artists copied these scenes to learn how to paint gods, hell, and battles for temple walls. The brushwork is so light you can almost see the student’s hand shaking. To see more of these small, precise 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.

Did you know?

On the left, demon-soldiers carry their prey. On the right, half-animal figures, one with a ram’s head, are ushered forward and driven out of the mountain.

Read the full account in the museum source.