Untitled

The album leaf is dated to about the year 1000, within the period of the Northern Song painter Xu Daoning, and is executed in ink and light color on silk. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. No documented commission or earlier ownership chain has been published in the available sources, and the work's early provenance remains untraced prior to its modern institutional location.

This untitled work by Xu Daoning, created around 1000 CE, is a painted silk album leaf from the Northern Song dynasty. It presents a serene landscape dominated by towering mountains, their jagged forms emerging from a shroud of mist and capped with snow. The delicate scale of the painting invites close contemplation, drawing the viewer into its detailed natural world.

Created during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127 CE), this landscape reflects a significant period in Chinese art history when nature became a primary subject for intellectual and spiritual exploration. Artists of this era moved beyond literal depiction, using landscapes to articulate profound philosophical ideas and personal sentiments. The portrayal of mountains and natural elements often symbolized cosmic order and the human place within it.