Zhang Xian Shoots the Heavenly Dog
1836
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1836
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Zhang Xian Shoots the Heavenly Dog is a 1836 by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a man in a red robe drawing a bow, aiming at a dark cloud shaped like a dog. This painting shows a folk tale: Zhang Xian, a Daoist immortal, shoots the "Heavenly Dog" to stop eclipses. The artist used bright colors and bold outlines—common in Chinese New Year prints. These prints were cheap, mass-produced, and hung in homes for luck. If you like this, look up *china, qing dynasty (1644–1911)*.
In the 1600s, printing flourished in such Jiangnan cities as Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Huizhou, evolving from privately enjoyed illustrated books printed in color to more commercialized single-sheet color prints that were hung on walls and became part of the rich urban visual culture.
Woodblock printing in color reached a height in China in the 1600s to 1700s. The prints were executed by means of sets of separate blocks, each carved to print a different color.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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